PARIS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have you seen this? The amazing blog Oh Happy Day is giving away a trip to Paris for 7 (yes I said 7) days. Wouldn't this be lovely! You all should try and win!



Pic found here

Amber's Choice

We are finally laying the flooring downstairs, which means I can try and finish what I started months ago - the office. Our old office was burnt orange, white and black, with yellow walls. Every time I went in there I felt like the room was screaming at me. Now with the cool grays and ample doses of white it feels much more serene. So serene it is a bit boring and I need to bring it up a notch.


My starting point is most definately this amazing quilt that my mum-in-law gave us for our wedding. It's black, white, and red - some of the colors we used at our wedding. It is such a nice gift, I want to make sure it has a secure home in the office where it will be safe, rarely used, and we'll still see it every week. I am not a huge fan of just using these three colors for the entire room as the whole color combo though. That reminds me of the 80's for some reason. I want to bring in another dominant color.

My first thought is one my all time favorit color combinations to go with the newly painted walls- Gray and Yellow. I even spotted this table cloth at Target that I would want to make some pillow covers with, or possibly make a slip cover for the office chair. For me there is just no happier color combo than yellow and gray.

Plus, yellow and gray were just ment to be bestfriends. Seriously, they are marvelous together

Picture can be found here.

But this color combo has me thinking- isn't yellow and red the color combo I just tried to get rid of by painting the old yellow walls and changing out my old redish desks? I thought I was going for a cool, relaxing work space. Maybe red and yellow aren't the best way to go.

So when I think of red (or more of a burnt orange is what I am trying to incorporate) what complimentary color comes to mind? None other than blue, my most favorite color. Now, that wouldn't be a bad idea! It would even help tie our downstairs blue living room with the upstairs. Make the flow of the house more cohesive.

After all, red and blue is a very traditional color combo. (The above picture can be found here
) Traditional, classic - Those are definately two styles that I am trying to incorporate into our decor. One of my 30X30 goals is to have our style grow up a bit. Maybe a traditional color combination would play well with the sleek, modern IKEA style we have going on in there so far. Plus I've always wanted to use yellow and gray in a nursery someday. But can I really turn my back on yellow and gray- it's just too cute? Hmmm. I just can't decide. what to do, what to do?

I LOVE St. George

My cousin was recently married in the St. George so me, Jeff and the family went up to St. George for a weekend getaway. It was such a lovely break and so awesome to spend time with the family.
The sealing was so beautifully done and the happy couple couldn't keep their ear to ear grins from off their face. I was struck by how young and Innocent they seemed, even though they are both definitely of age to be married. I can't believe I was ever this young, so incredibly in love, and so pure. It was so obvious with them, which made it even the more beautiful.

The next morning we woke up early and prepared a little brunch for my aunt/old roomie. We were meeting up with her at a Spa in St. George where we were all getting some kind of treatment as a belated bridal shower party. In order to make the day a little more special my sisters and I decided to prepare a little surprise brunch for after the spa.

We were staying at my Uncle and Aunts second home in St. George which made for a beautiful little backdrop. The post-bride has always been a big fan of rainbows- in love with them ever since I can remember- so I thought it would be fun to have everything in a rainbow theme.

This picture below didn't turn out too well, but my favorite was the fruit rainbow. (I was trying to hurry and take a few pictures after setting it all up before the whole crowd arrived just a few minutes after me from the spa). The "table cloth" was just crepe paper streamers that I laid across the table in rainbow order. I even had a bucket of chocolate gold pieces near one of the table legs. All the decorations were from the dollar store and came in under $20. Perfect for a little last minute celebration!

Everyone ate (chicken salad, rolls, fruit, chips, pickles, olives, cupcakes, and lemonade/sprite mix), and stayed and talked for a couple of hours. It was such a nice visit and everyone was so relaxed from the spa.
Us sisters spent the rest of the day shopping after everyone else went home. Seriously! I told you this was a wonderful weekend. Weddings, spas, shopping, eating yummy food. Honestly, I needed this so much.

The next day us sisters got up late, watched old AMC movies, ate a big breakfast, then went out that afternoon for a hike. We went to Red Cliffs and we luckily hit it just right. There was plenty of water, which made the hike all the more fun on a hot-ish spring day. The hike was just as much fun as I remembered it being from the good ol' college days. This time though I had my nice camera that I was terrified of getting wet, so we had to do some hiking around and shifting to keep it nice and safe.

Some of the parts were a little more challenging then I remember too. Luckily thier were some nice men who didn't mind giving us girls a hand. So shameful to have to ask for help, but everyone in Utah is just so nice. (At least they were on this hike, that day.)

Not only was it just a fun relaxing weekend in St. George, but I also noticed that everyone really did seem to be so nice. There were also so many people out walking, running and playing around town all the time. It really does seem like such a nice little town and I am so glad I get to go up and visit family as often as I do. It almost makes me forget my trepidation about living in Utah, I think maybe I could handle it, but I'm sure if I lived there it would be a different story.

For now I'll take my weekends going to the temple, visiting with friends and family, shopping, and hiking. Lovely, lovely weekend!!

The Cement Is Getting To Me

As I mentioned before, our first floor recently flooded from a broken water heater. We came home one night to find a squishy floor with water seeping out wherever we stepped. It was not fun. It turned this floor . . .


into this ...



Luckily our insurance will cover the damage. The hardest part is living in the mess until we get around to laying new floors and figuring our what to install for the future. Unfortunately, it feels like our insurance company is giving us peanuts for the floor replacement, about 60% of what it originally costs us. However, the lower price does definitely limit our possibilities when shopping, so at least our selection pool is smaller. I am choosing to look at this as a good thing, otherwise all the choices may overwhelm me.

Our first shopping experience left us pining for a bamboo floor. Particularly one we found at Costco. So of course I went off to research bamboo floors. Here are the basics of what I found. Bamboo definitely runs the gamut of low and high quality. Peoples reviews were everything from 'it didn't even last a year before it needed replacement' to 'strongest and best floor I've ever had.'

(Picture found here.)

Bamboo's durability, just like any other floor, depends on it's construction. The basics: Naturally colored bamboo floors are the strongest. Once a manufacture starts to stain or carbonize bamboo to change the color, bamboo starts to get weaker. Another big factor in bamboo floors is the grain. Is the plank laid horizontally, vertically, or is it strand woven? Strand woven is typically the strongest and horizontal the least. I am not an expert, but this is what most people came to a consensus on with a basic search.

Lastly, and probably the biggest factor in bamboo's durability, is how old the bamboo is. The longer the bamboo had time to grow and harden, the stronger it will be. I never found one certain way to figure out how old the bamboo was, some people said to try and scratch and dent it with a coin, while others said you can only be sure how old it is if the manufacture tells you.

Our bamboo, the only floating version we could find in our price range, was carbonized and laid horizontally. Although I knew we would have to get carbonized or stained bamboo, because I do not like the natural color of bamboo, I was not willing to negotiate on the bamboo's grain. Red flags were waived and I started to ponder other options. I'd love a bamboo floor, but I think we would need a bigger budget to get the quality we want/need. We would also need a bigger budget to get my dream floors.

(Pic Found here.)

Seriously! How gorgeous is that floor? It makes me drool. Even a plain Jane wood floor in general is far above our reach. We come against the same issue we had with bamboo, although we could afford the cheapest hard wood floor in the shop, it would not be of the greatest quality and may need to be replaced sooner that we'd like.

Tile and Ceramic floors are another option popular in the desert, but we already have a tiled kitchen. #1) I'm not crazy about the color. They were chosen by price (we got a steal on craigslist), not by aesthetics. #2) I have to clean them EVERYDAY. It drives me nuts. I will save installing tile for my kitchens and bathrooms but I don't think I'll ever have them in my living area.

This leaves us with the ever growing popular choice of Laminate. I loved our old laminate floors before a deep soak in water had it's way with them. I was never crazy about the color (this time they'll be less red/orange), but they were easy to maintain and let me fool myself every once in a while into thinking I had real wood floors.

Last time we laid down our flooring, when we first moved in, we picked this floor because our brother-in-law had a bunch left over from a previous house. He had enough to cover about 1/3 of our space, which saved us a bunch of $$. This time around we are starting from scratch, and yes it is still a little overwhelming, even with a smaller selection pool.

Here are the basics of what to know when picking a laminate floor:

The texture, or top layer of the laminate, can differ. Embossed is generally stronger and cleaner than a gloss finish. A gloss finish will also show more smudge marks and scratches. An engraved top layer is ridged, or wavy. Some say this makes it look more like real wood, but I am not ascetically a fan of engraved laminate, no matter how strong it is (the strongest type of texture), so I keep my distance. When shopping you can usually tell the finish by just looking at the laminates finish.

You also want to check the box for more information. The AC rating (Abrasion Class rating) is another big factor in laminates durability. AC1 is the weakest and AC5 is the strongest. Manufactures suggest using the lower AC ratings in low traffic areas, like a bedroom, but I decided I didn't want to go under anything less than an AC3 rating. AC3's can be used in high traffic rooms or even for commercial use (although most commercial use is a AC4 or better).

Other factors to consider are if it was made under high pressure or direct pressure, high pressure being more durable. Also was a water resistant coating used to protect the cores durability? Does it have a NALFA cert seal showing it has passed the standard durability testing? Was high VOC or hazards glues used to bind the layers?

(Pic found here.)

There was much more to consider than I thought there would be. My biggest concerns were initially about how it looked, but the more I started to research the more concerned I grew to find a durable floor. As are most homes in Las Vegas, our house is under water, (no not literally under water, we do not live near the Mississippi River) but we owe more than our house is worth. We even bought our foreclosed on home in December 2008, when the market really crashed, but Las Vegas is defying all odds and the value of our home is still ever decreasing.

Since we still have an insanely low mortgage though, we have no immediate plans to try and sell and will most likely be the home with little kids and maybe (if Jeff lets me) a puppy. In the future however, we may need to use the house as a rental and I want the floors to be able to hold up to whatever the homes future may entail.

At first I was so naive in thinking we would have a new floor within a week or two, but by now I really should know myself and realize I am going to take my time and figure out what is best for us and best for the house. Hopefully we can get it all figures out this summer!

The Guest Room Challange

We recently had our roomie move out. Okay, so not very recently, she has moved out and is already MARRIED! (Which I am beyond excited about - I love Mat and Lora!). But with our little one leaving the nest we have our spare room spare again. Now, it's even painted a wonderful purple hued gray.My quest is to make a lounge/guest space with no budget. Not that I am going to go out and buy the whole room from Room and Board, but rather, I need to decorate this space for free. With the recent money put into the office and fixing our flooring downstairs (Flooded. More on that later), I don't really have additional funds for a guest room. Plus, prayers answered, we will have a little one filling this space within the next year or so. There really isn't any reason to go out and spend a bunch of money on a room that will hopefully be in transition soon enough.

In the meantime however, having it sitting there empty is totally bumming me out. Not only do I not have a much beloved roomie, but there is no bun in the oven to imagine filling up the space. The empty space creeps me out. So, with no budget I need to fix it. I might have to buy nails and glue or something, but really this will be a work with I've got project. I wonder what I will come up with? How fun!

A Camping We Will Go- (hi ho, hi ho)

We went for a mini camping trip in Zion this last March, just a quick weekend trip. It was all too lovely and perfect. Jeff and I went up early to set up everybody's site on Friday because the army had half day (Arrested Development reference). We really just did it because no one wanted to set up a tent at night. That is the worst part of camping, tent pole meet my eye. No thanks.

Friday Jeff and I hit up Springdale for dinner after setting up camp. After dinner at the Pioneer Wagon (?) we strolled main street and went in all the gift shops. We are trying to send ourselves postcards from all our vacations with a few notes of what we did on the vacation. Postcards are much cheaper and easier to store then other chachkies. Once it got dark we headed back to camp and bleed our car battery dry watching old Buffy episodes. Having a mini date with the hubby on our mini camping trip was a nice surprise. Nobody else ended up showing up until wee hours of the night, which in camping terms is at like 10 at night.

The next morning we just chilled and eventually found our way to the Emerald Pools hike. (We originally planed to also do the Oak Creek trail as well but traded that hike for a nap instead.) Emerald Pools was such a great choice. The weather could not have been better and at the top of the three pools was a giant snow drift still melting away from winter. I've done this hike a number of times before, but this time was by far my favorite. Who would have known - go hiking in mid-March.

The hiking, lounging, and napping was wonderful, but the main event for me was the cooking. This was the first time in a long time that I had gone camping without any "real" adults. I usually let the "real" adults cook me up a bunch of good grub, or just go with a can of soup or something when I camp solo. Jeff's parents have been great at gifting us a bunch of camping gear every Christmas since we got married though, so we finally busted all of it out, the stoves, the tables, and the DUTCH OVEN!

I have to say that my first round of real camping cooking went swimmingly thanks to the Bame's. Jeffs dad provided me with a couple tried and true Dutch Oven recipies. Because I am so nice I'll share them here too!

We had a really great time. This mini camping trip was test run for hopefully more extensive camping trip to come. So much more relaxing then running all the weekend errands and cleaning the house. I will take this kind of weekend anytime!

Breakfast:

Eggs (1.5 for each person)

2 cups of milk

1 package of bacon

1 package of sausage

2 medium bags of hashbrowns

cheese or salsa

Place liner in the dutch oven. Layer the bottom with bacon, then layer 1/2 the hashbrowns, sausages, and the rest of the bacon. Repeat layer (minus bacon). Poor eggs and milk mixture over the top. (Eggs, milk and salt and paper should be consistancy of srambled eggs.) Bake at 350 for an hour. Once done top with cheese or salsa or just each plain because it is so yummy!

Dinner:

1 Chicken breast a person

Sliced thin potatoes (as many as you want, never enough potatoes)

1pack of Stoffer Stuffing

2-3 cans of Cream of Chicken Soup

Onions

Oil

Line Dutch oven. Put a little oil on the bottom. Layer thinly sliced potatoes and chicken. Pour in 1/2 of the soup and sliced onions, repeat layers. 15 min before it's completed pour in Stoffer Stuffing mixture on the top. Bake at 350 for an hour. (Can use cheese soup or mushroom soup too).

Dessert:

2 Jars (3 Cans) of Pie Filling.

White Cake Mix

1 can soda (sprite)

seasoning mixture (cinnomin, nutmeg, sugar- to taste)

Put fruit mixture on the bottom of lined dutch oven. Sprinkle seasonings over fruit. In a bag, mix the cake with a can of soda. Pour the cake mixture over the fruit and bake- you guessed it- an hour at 350. YUM!

The Office- For Reals This Time

I did it for reals. We started to re-do the office and we pretty much have the basics down. This is what the office looked like last time I dared to snap a photo:

It was a little more messy than normal because this was during my first painting attempt. It actually got worse (if that is possible) when the roommates stuff moved in, so the office was filled with some of hers and some of ours. This room was just not working in anyway. The old school desk I bought for $2 from an old school about to be torn down in UT, my old dressers from Target that were falling apart, and a broken futon, does not the best office make. It was embarrassing.

After some paint and elbow grease, now our office looks like this!

Or at least this what it looked like the night I came home to see Jeff made the desk, but- MUCH better! We bought these cabinets from Ikea last July and just have not had the space to put them up, since the roomies and our stuff was so packed in that room. I bought them in a moment of insanity when I thought we were rolling in the dough, they are $120 each. That might not seem like much to other folks but that is just how cheap I am. If I were more creative I could have bought some broken shelves from Craigslist and painted them, but I thought these babies were worth the cost . . and I was insane.

I picked these beauties out specifically because of how deep they are, a little over 17 inches. I knew that would be the perfect depth to store our vinyl records. Most standard shelves are just too shallow. Plus with two, we have one for him and one for me. This way I wont go nuts if his shelves get too messy, I'll never even have to see them. (Don't his V-day comic book holders look so cute in there!)

Jeff made our desk from a hollow core door we bought at the Habitat for Humanity Restore for just $10 bucks. I was actually dreaming about how we could make a desk one night and told him how I thought it would work that next morning. That night I came home and he had it ALL done. What a wonderful husband I have!

Look at how cute he is, acting like he didn't just rock my world by making me a little desk. (Pay no attention to our messy garage, a project for another day.)

See how the inside of the door is hollow. All we had to do was make a long 'L' bracket from two 1x2 planks. The one inch side (with a little shaving and sanding, maybe even some cutting) can fit inside the hollow part of the door and secured with glue and nails (underneath, so they wont show). The other part of the 'L' bracket is then used to secure the desk to the wall.

Making the desk ourselves let us customize the width and length, and wouldn't you know it, we chose the same width as the Ikea Shelves and the perfect length to fit in between them. This makes our whole desk and storage area take up just over a foot of wall space along one side of the room. Nice! We have some of the hollow core door left over so we are thinking of making a couple floating display shelves for the office as well. There are a lot of different tutorials on how to make desks, shelves and whatnot online. You can get a ton of DIY tips and hints by just Googling it. Try it, it's fun. Or you can dream about how to do it, either or.

Of course I can't forget the paint. This is the bugger that held up the process for months and months. Thanks to a couple of my favorite bloggers, I found the perfect paint color- BM's Moonshine. This is a true gray, it didn't pull green, or blue, or purple. I love it! I had it color matched to Valspar's no VOC paint so it didn't even smell. Jeff was smart enough to think to color match the Ikea shelves too, so that our desk would match perfectly and look more like a built in shelving system. That really was the look we were going for.

Of course the office isn't DONE, but I think it is finally well on it's way. We still have the broken futon (we probably will until we win the lottery or something), and I still need to hang art and accessorize, but the base is done and NOW the fun part can begin!