Jeff turns 29!

My lover turned 29. I can't believe we are getting so old. I still feel like I just graduated college. (Maybe that because Jeff is still in college- ha ha!) Any who, Jeff decided that he is so old that presents don't even excite him anymore. Honestly, the kid didn't want for anything. Not a bad place to be in, but I think also a sign of our increasing age.


Look at this guy- he is just so awesome! He wasn't going to let the opportunity pass him by.

Since he didn't want any presents, he turned his attention to what other people want or need. In the end he decided that he wanted to participate in a Walk for Diabetes that was being held here in Las Vegas on his very birthday. Jeff has had 3 grandparents pass away from Diabetes and a string of other family members as well. We know it is a disease that will continue to effect our lives down the road.

He decided instead of people giving him gifts he would just have them sponsor or sign up to walk on our team for the Diabetes Walk. He is such a giver, all the time. I was so proud of him for making that decision and was totally on board! I signed us up for a team and named it "Birthday Boy" after our little (or rather big) Jeffery.

The next step was to get some supporters and team members signed up! I turned to the ever trusted Power Point program and made up some invites, turned it into a picture and went to Facebook to spread the word.

We planned on going to his Mom and Dads house for some food after the walk, since they live so close to the Springs Preserve, where the walk was being held. It was kind of hard to get people on board and signed up, not the easiest steps to follow on the hosts website, but in the end we had a good little group to walk with us on his Birthday!

To get people psyched for the walk, and show our appreciation for their participation in his unconventional birthday, Jeff and I thought up a couple simple Thank Yous for their participation. For the first one they got these Trail Mix thanks yous when I greeted them on the morning of the walk. The walk was at 8am, so a little food didn't hurt.

The next Thanks was a bandanna that Jeff's cousin screen printed our teams name on. We all wore white, while Jeff got the red one that said "Birthday Boy," since red was the color of the event in general.




Our walk lasted a whole of 10-15 minutes, but it was nice chatting with family along the way and being in a larger group with like minded people.


After the walk we used the Springs Preserve as a backdrop for a little photo shoot. Anywhere I go with my sisters and my camera we have to make time for photo shoots- ha ha. We got some good pictures. There really aren't any words, I'll let you bask in our dorky glory!












After the event festivities we headed back to his parents place for some grub. My camera started acting up at this point, so I don't have many pictures (just the one below), but this is where I had probably one of the BEST burgers of my life. Jeff''s brother Spence makes the best hamburgers!! So good!!!! (We also munched on healthy, low sugar options as well.)


After lunch we hit up a matinee to see Restless, then may or may not have movie hoped over to Real Steele. After that Jeff came home to watch the BYU game. It was a really nice day and Jeff even managed to get a present or two at the end of it all. I got him an hour message and we think with the other loot he got that we may go see Jersey Boys down on the strip. Jeff has wanted to see it for so long, so he is a super happy guy. I love him so much and am glad he had a nice Birthday.

Emily Henderson is AMAZING

I have to admit that I totally have a girl crush on Emily Henderson. I think she has such a wonderful quirky style. I am not totally 200% in love with everything she does, (sometimes we just have different tastes) but her ideas seem to be never ending. I wish I could have just the talent that is stored in one of her pinkies. I'm pretty sure that is all I would need, because she has talent in spades. (The pinkie thing all the sudden sounded kind of creepy to me? Hmm.)

Emily just published a massive gift guide on her blog. It has a ton of awesome stuff in it. If you can't think of what to get someone I would suggest looking here. Or just look here anyways because you can never have too many gift ideas!

Open publication - Free publishing

If for some reason the issue above doesn't work above visit her blog here.

Window Shopping Wednesday - Feeling NAUTIcal

I don't know why I've really felt like window shopping lately. Okay, who am I kidding, I have really felt like buying a lot of stuff lately but have settled just to window shop. I think it is the changing of the seasons or something that makes me feel like shopping. Or maybe the impending holiday season. At any rate, items with a more nautical flare keep catching my eye. It totally makes me want to sit on the beach while listening to Tennis. (Don't know Tennis? Go here, for some reason I can't embed their video.)



I keep trying to talk Jeff into letting me buy that picture of the ocean (#8). ( We always consult each other before making an art purchase, we have very different taste.) It is of a stormy day off the French coastline. So pretty. I want to add some art work in my downstairs bath and I think something like that would be nifty in a little collection!

You can find these for purchase here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9

Pinterest Pickings - Halloweens frightenin'

This last year I have been trying to be more festive and get into decorating for the holidays (I CAN'T Wait for Christmas! Our house maybe decorated for two or three months!). BUT thanks to the Nevada State mandated furloughs finding the extra cash to fund these holiday decorations has become more of a challenge. I figure I'd rather save up for a new chair or table then spend on little things in the interim.

This is where I turned to my new trusty best friend Pinterest! Seriously, I am so addicted. I could close my facebook or myspace (yes, I still have a myspace) account and not even bat an eyelash, but this Pinterest stuff is SOOO ADDICTING! Love it! Any who, I searched around for some creative and frugal ways to celebrate for Halloween. If you read this blog then you know when I say frugal I pretty much mean free, right?

I also didn't have time to do a whole lot of festive decorating either, so in the end all I really ended up making was this . . .



and this . . .


If I more time I thought it would also have been fun to do these:


This modge podged pumpkin from Urban Daisies:


This scary decor from Muse Lodge

This cute little pumpkin from Dollar Store Crafts

And lastly this cute tutu wreath found on Google Images. So cute and so fun. Maybe next year I'll be able to find time to do a few more Halloween projects!

Plugged In!!! Flirting with a media fast

I have been mulling over this idea about eliminating or reducing the amount of media that we have in our house/life. The idea grows stronger every time I hear about an event or days dedicated to limiting dependence on media.

I know a couple of people who either do not have a TV or who at least do not have a TV in their family room and limit the amount of time the TV is on. This is an interesting concept to me. I remember hardly ever watching TV or movies as a child, I was always outside. In college I never had time to turn on the tube. Looking back these were probably some of my happiest times as well. Today my time spent with media is a different story. Below is a picture of our current family room.

The TV is pretty much front and center. The furniture layout is made for easy TV viewing, and anyone can tell it is the main function of the room – being transfixed on the TV. We watch a good amount of TV at our house. We have a DVR, it is barely capable of recording all of our TV shows (the nerve of Direct TV to limit recordings to only 50 TV shows).

Our media obsession does not merely end with the TV; it expands to movies, media packages on our phones, and, of course, the computer. We probably average seeing about 4-5 movies a month. That’s right people. I said 4-5. Thanks to websites like this and this, the majority of these movies are free (Score!), but it still means that we spend 8 to 10 hours a month just watching movies. And the soda and popcorn are definitely not free.

In addition to this we also subscribe to Netflix. Although, to be fair we do keep threatening that we are going to cancel. We’ve been threatening for a good number of months but for some reason we just never make that call.

And as mentioned above, we pay the $30 bucks a month per person for each of us to have data packages on our phones through Verizon. I use this on a daily basis, checking my emails, checking Facebook, looking up movie times, or using GPS Navigation. I also spend time on the computer at work (lunch hour only please) or at home looking up decorating blogs or being sucked into Pinterest for hours. Jeff prefers to use his time on the computer searching out new music and bands, and playing war themed games.

We are seriously plugged in with all this media! Everyday. All day. It not only takes up a healthy dose of our time, but obviously, it takes up our money as well. So how do we end the cycle? How do we free ourselves from this never ending barrage of media?
Pic found here

One method of cleansing from media’s clutches if the growing popular media fast. I first started to hear about these in the news and on blogs a year or two ago. Apartment Therapy will hold media fasts every once in a while. I would like to try and participate but often get cold feet. I’m afraid of failure, even if I’m the only one who knows I’ve failed at something.

Another one of my biggest challenges is this guy.


He really likes all things media. So much so that I try to get him to start his own blog reviewing movies, TV shows, and music. I figure he spends so much time with it that he might as well try and turn it into something useful, or a creative outlet. But it stays more of hobby. Hmmm, can watching TV be called a hobby? Not sure. But if it can, this is probably his biggest hobby. I’ve brought up the idea of fasting from media for a week or so, but this usually ends with Jeff twitching nervously and wondering how serious I really am and how to talk me out of it.

I think we’ve decided that a week of media fasting probably won’t due for him. But we have compromised to doing a media fast for a day (which does not include music). The boy must have his tunes. And to be honest, I really enjoy music in our house too. It is pretty much always playing in the background at our house. Then once we compromise with a day instead of a week, I’ll say something like I’d like to have a day a month that we just unplug. He says a day a year or every 6 months will do him fine. So again we are at a stand still. (His main argument is that he has to be able to watch his sports. Men?)

Plus, doing a media fast every once in a while is a fine idea, but is it really getting to the root of the problem? And am I even sure this is a problem, and if it is, how big is it? I always could try and implement a house rule that the TV stays off until 8:00 pm every day, or something like that, but again I’m not really sure how far to take this.

Any who, these are my thoughts about media lately. I am not sure how much of a role I want it to play in my life, and am not sure about what actions to take. Anyone out there have their own set of rules for media in their lives? If so please share!

Grandpa Jones turns 91!!

My Grandpa Jones turned 91 this month. I ran up to St. George to celebrate with my family while Jeff stayed in town to work. My Uncles on my fathers side also came down with their wives and some family.


He seemed to have a good time, even if a surgery the following week was weighing on his mind. A few days after his birthday he went in to have one of his kidneys removed. We were all so grateful when he came out of surgery in good spirits and ready to go (well, at least as ready as a 91 year old man who just had an organ removed.)

Words simply cannot express how much I love this man. He has lived threw so much, been so many things to different people, but for me, I can't think of anything greater then getting to be his (grand) daughter. I am so, so lucky, and ever so grateful for knowing him like I do.

If you build it, they will come

We moved into the condouse in February of 2009. Since then we have had 1 guest stay with us. Yes, just one. It wasn't even our guest, it was our old roomies guest back when our house had 3 instead of 2. (I am starting to think that 2 really is the loneliest number, because I miss a house that is full and filled with laughter and talks.)

If you will remember a post or two ago I complained that the roomie moving out left us again with a creepy empty room and I set out to turn it into a guestroom/ lounge area that we could hang out in. I thought it would mainly be used for lounging, as our guest-record is rather depressing. (With both Jeff's and I's parents in town, we rarely have the need to house guests and usually have people stay with the 'rents.)


However, the old roomie had her reception in town and with the reception came the need to house guests! Yes, they still aren't really our guest, but guests none the less, and I was happy to take them in. Happy too that the weekend of the reception gave me a deadline to complete my latest project. Otherwise my guestroom challenge could linger for months, much like some of my other recent projects (link paint or posting this about 3 months after finishing our spare room).

I also mentioned in the post of long ago that I was going to try decorate the space for free, or next to it. This was not a glamorous make over, but this is what I had to work with - basically, nada. So I went shopping around the house to see if I could find some useful items to fill the space.

Our garage housed a couple of old dresser drawers and an old side table that I use to use as a night stand.

I also found some old pillows and curtains from our first house, or maybe even my college days? Not sure, but they are old buys from Pier One. With my dresser drawers in the garage, my old side table and a stained pineapple lamp I figured I had all the makings of new room- haha.

I took the dresser drawers and decided they were going to be mounted to the walls to create my new shelves. I wanted some way to spice them up and modernize them, so the room looked a little more current and less like stuff from my garage, so I grabbed some paint we had on hand and I hunted down a cool painting tutorial on the web. Over at Kelly and Olive they have a great Chevron Painting tutorial that I used to paint the backs of my drawers. I wont get into it here, because really their tutorial is great.

The next garage transformation was for that sad side table that I use to use for a nightstand. I decided to unscrew the top part of the table and was left with something more like a stool. With my new little stool I grabbed an extra pillow we only ever use for road trips, a couple of rarely warn scarves, a stapler, and tape. Tools in hand I transformed this little bad boy into a kind of ottoman or coffee table. I just plopped the pillow on top for batting, wrapped the scarves around the top and staples and taped the bottom to make it tight and secure.

In a couple of weeks I had everything together and had my very own, nearly free room re-do!

The desk use to live in our office, along with the side chair. The Strokes poster was one of Jeff's old posters, as is the guitar. The TV was ours, it was just being stored at his brothers house until we had a need for it. We still have the old futon (on the far right side of the room), but thanks to Jeff's sisters letting us switch out our old broken frame for their totally intact frame, it's no longer an issue.

The only part of the room make over that cost us some mula was the closet doors. We found them at the Habitat for Humanity store for $25 a piece. I thought that was pretty expensive for closet doors, but after weeks of looking for cheaper ones on Craigslist that matched all of our other doors in the house, I kind of gave in. I think it was an okay buy, plus it's reused, so that is a plus.

The mirrors were something I bought from Ikea years ago that I had never even opened. The blue vase in the corner was from our old apartment. My favorite part, however, ended up being my dresser drawer shelves.

The beyond cute giraffes are from my grandma. She has had them for years, and hearing me say how much I loved them a few months ago, decided to give them to me for my birthday. I absolutely love my giraffes! I think they will look so great in our nursery one day, and since this room will be the nursery, it's only appropriate that they live there now too. (The picture is of our old roomie, who is a frequent guest in the room now with her hubster.)

One of my other favorite parts of the room is this great chevron woven tray. I had bought 2 of these at Salvation Army for $2 total a few months back. The other matching tray is on my nightstand corralling all my books. I saw almost the exact same trays a few weeks later at Pier One for $15 a piece- good buy Amber!

On my new favorite tray I put a couple of books that are fun to peruse through and don't require any real reading. Hopefully this can entertain our guests with some late night laughs. On my books is a small wood stick game and a harmonica for entertainment as well (although I hope they actually don't use the harmonica- we use it all the time- so that could be some weird germ action going on.) The small pink depression glass bowl is from a previous co-worker and can be used to store guest jewelry and whatnot.

Luckily I had a couple scarves on hand that matched the old school desk that is being used as a TV stand. The color is so bold that I find I don't wear them as often as I should, so I think they will get more use out of being a temporary ottoman for a while.

My old pineapple lamp was spray painted white and the shade was recovered with fabric I had on hand. Because of the odd shape of the shade I had a little trouble and I may need to tidy this up a little bit, but it works for now. The room will work for the temporary time its needed. I think I may add our brown rug that we have downstairs once we get that upgraded to a nicer one, but the whole thing is pretty good to go. We have had a handful of overnight guest since it's completion and it works great.

And for BONUS JONUS points I even tackled more of the hallway that leads to the new guest/chill space. I have all of these paint samples from trying to choose the right gray for the hallway and decided to put them to good use.

I stumbled out into my messy garage again and found my spare picture frames. I didn't think I had enough so I went to the Salvation Army and bought a few more frames to make a good sized grouping.

I laid them out to envision how it would look on the wall, and then decided what frames would be painted what color of test paint. When I was all done I ended up with this:

I mostly used art and pictures that we had on hand. The largest picture is of the Eiffel Tower that I picked up when I was in Paris. The dried flowers are from our wedding. The orange picture is of the Nauvoo Temple that my little sister gave me as a gift.

The old couple grabbing bums is a card I gave to Jeff. The "I like you a lot" is from Salt and Paper and is a free card printable, I just put it on some stripped paper we had.

I really like my little Nevada cut out with a green heart over Las Vegas. I just made this out of paper we had in the office. I am not 100% sold on how it all looks, but I figure it is my first picture grouping I've tried to do, so it may take some practice. I imagine more black and white photos on this wall some day,but first I have to get picture ready, which might be a while. For now, I will take a work in progress- heck I will just take me getting off my lazy butt and doing something in this house! Especially if it only cost me $50 bucks for closet doors and some change.