My Thumb Turned GREEN!!!

Guess what today is...? The day my flower bloomed!! YAY! This is the plant that Richard got for me when I came home from being away with family for three weeks. It is a New Guinea Impatiens and it is beautiful. Now for someone who thought she would never have a green thumb I think I'm doing a pretty good job. :D I'm so excited!! I looked at it earlier today with the sun shining on it and it sparkled. It literally looked like Tinker Bell came and used her magic fairy dust on it. Personally I don't mind the help and I think I can use as much as I can get. Richard said that is because of the water inside the petals that made it sparkle. (I still believe its Tink ;] ) My other plant is just getting ready to bloom and I can't wait. This plant I got for mother's day back home and it is a Dark Red Geranium. It had a bloom when I first got it but died in the travels back to Rexburg from Boise. I also planted a few other plants earlier this week and can't wait until I see little sprouts. Don't worry, I'll let you know as soon as it happens :D What are your favorite plants/flowers? What have you planted or grown this year? Or in the past years what gave you a green thumb? Let me know! And have a wonderful weekend!

Or-I-Gam-I :D

Like I said in the previous post, I'm in an origami mood. So today I decided to challenge myself! (I like to do that :D ) I made a bow and a rose. They were super fun to make and I am definitely going to make them again. I need to make them again and get in the practice, because they were hard. I guess in the long run they really weren't hard, the hard part was my instructions were all in Japanese!! Guess I need to brush up on my Japanese skills, or create them since I don't speak it or read it. The bow was really simple, after I figured out where I was supposed to cut. They probably told me but I couldn't understand it. So I succeed on the second try. The rose was probably the most difficult thing I have ever accomplished!! (origami wise) I'm pretty sure you had to fold that at least a hundred times. This one took me minimum an hour to figure out, but I DID IT!! :D Yay Me!! As you can probably see these are both done on phone book again. It's a good way to use scrap paper and you can try as many times and you need with it. Plus its super easy to fold, but that can also be a problem. Just the simplest impression with a finger creates a fold. I love origami! Do you? What things can you create from it? I think I want to try and make Yoda! I saw that on Google today. Not sure how well it would turn out but that's most definitely on my bucket list! :D Thanks for reading! Comment below on what you want me to try next!

Flowers! Flowers for everyone!!!

So much to do, so little time! You know what I mean? Today seemed to be like that. Clean this, clean that, go shopping, plant some more, get your visiting teaching done, make more appointments, cook dinner, clean up after that, it just keeps going. That's what makes life exciting though. I'm so glad my house is clean, I'm very grateful we got a blender, I'm excited for my plants to grow, and I had a wonderful time visiting my sisters today! For dinner I decided to go all out because I haven't done that in a while. Fried chicken and mashed potatoes! Yummy! Then for dessert I decided to try and make flan. I've never had it before but Richard loves it and apparently I did a really good job. It's...interesting stuff. It was good for the first 3 bites and then it got really sweet and old. Too mushy? Gooey? I'm not sure what the right word is, but if you've had it, you probably know. I did manage to get my down time today and make some crafts. I guess all this planting I've done has put me in a flower mood because that's what I made today. The first one is a paper flower. Technically it's a phone book flower but that's not important. I didn't have any fancy paper but I did have paint, so I used my resources! I used to be huge into origami when I was younger and this brought back some really great memories. (You'll probably see more now ;] ) This is super easy to do but gluing it together seemed to be rather difficult for me. I did figure it out though :D

The second flower I made is from a scrap piece of fabric left over from the skirt I made a while ago. Now I have something to match with my skirt :D I love when I can reuse old fabric or scraps and make something beautiful out of it :] I also have a lot of buttons which I have put on a few things lately, (not all are on here but I'll fix that eventually) so you'll see those quite a bit too. Please let me know what you think! I will take any ideas, challenges, requests, just let me know! THANK YOU!! :]

Message for you!

Today I had a hard time coming up with a craft that I wanted to do. Something fun, yet challenging. I was messing around on the computer, thinking, being bored on Facebook. You know, the usual! Then I saw two of my friends checking off their bucket list. A most popular one that I still have not yet accomplished: putting a message in a bottle and sending it off in the water. I thought to myself, that could be a fun craft but not good enough. I toyed around with this bottle idea for a while, indexed a little here and there and listened to my Piano Guys station on Pandora and I came up with this: Message ON a bottle! Inspirational words that literally pop out on a bottle. I know I said I wanted something challenging and I got it! This is basically hot glue on a bottle with spray paint over it. Do you know how hard it is to write with hot glue and have it look good? I'm not going to show you all my trial and errors on a different mason jar. I will say my fingers hurt from trying to peal off glue and starting over. Here is my finished (mostly finished, still needs to dry a bit more) product! What would you do if you found a message on a bottle floating around like that? I'd say it's pretty cool! What do you think? Any other inspirational messages you suggest I put on a different bottle? Let me know and I can make it! Thanks for reading :] Hope you all have a wonderful day!

In case you are wondering it says "Dream BIG"

Blind Clips :]

What a hot day!! Holy cow!! Did summer come really fast for anyone else? I think I missed spring, but I'm not sure. Anywho, since it is so hot and I'm a poor college student I'm saving power by not turning on my AC. That means the windows are open and I have our fan going. You know the problem with windows? Well there isn't one to windows, unless they don't have blinds. : / A friend of mine always said she felt like she was in a fish bowl when her window was open and the blinds were up. I'm starting to see what she means. It's like it's an invitation for people to peak in and say "Hi". Um, No Thank You! So, my blinds are down, thus keeping the sun out and making it cooler with the breeze. Since I live in Idaho, frankly it could be this way anywhere you go, it's rather windy. So windy that my blinds are blowing in the wind and slamming back on the window. It's really loud and very annoying! Being alone and bored I decided to do something about it and make my craft for today. I know it doesn't look like the best thing on the block, but it is something I threw together and works wonders! Yes, it is out of Popsicle sticks and hot glue, but super simple! With my husbands new saw I cut the wood the size I needed (scissors were splitting the wood :[ ) and glued it together like a square. Notice only one side on top is glued, the other is left open for an easy slip around the bottom of the blinds. I used double sided tape to attach it in place but I would assume you could use sticky tack or some other adhesive. I don't know if anyone else needed this idea or help but I sure did!

    

Fill in the blank card!

Do you ever realize that its a special occasion or you need to send a card to someone but don't have time to go to the store? Well that's why you make a homemade card. But it has to be super cool right? Like these? We decided to stock up and make cards today so we have them prepared for those forgotten moments. What do you think? Which one is your favorite? What other colors do you suggest? Let me know if I can make some for you!! $.75 a card! :]

 

Happy Summer

Bronco Season

Happy 4th of July

Merry Christmas

Any occasion

Any occasion

Thank You For...

Yesterday as I was checking off my list of chores I came to my last one: clean the fish bowl. This seems to be a hassle for something so simple. Nevertheless, I did it, and had a fun time too. (This usually happens when me and water get together!) Once I was done I put our fish, Toto, away and said "You're welcome" as he bubbled at me. It made me thing, fish can't talk, most animals can't communicate in a way for humans to understand. Yet we still do what we think is best for them and we get hardly anything in return let alone a "Thank You!". That also made me think about my communication with my husband. It's not the best. Now I'm no marriage expert but I do know, with a lot of repetitive reminders from my mommy, that lack of communication causes problems. In some cases it is easier to communicate and express ones feelings with writing. Hence the reason poems and songs seem to be so popular between loved ones. So with that in mind I realized I need to be more grateful for my husband and what he does, even if he does make a mess and I am constantly cleaning up after him. He does work hard and tries to do whats best for me. I also know that I am terrible at taking a compliment and I find little "love notes" or compliments around our house from him. This way it is in writing and I can see it when I need it. And with my super cute idea I can have a place to store them. These are "Thank You Jars". You can write a note to whomever when they do something nice for you or when you need to say something nice about them. My rule is when I think or say something rude about someone I have to come up with three nice things about them. This made me think of when I was in young women's and we had a service contest against our leaders. When ever we did a service that day we would write it down and collect them in a jar on Sunday. And of course which ever group had the most would get a party thrown for them by the opposing team. Now I have these cute little thank you jars for my husband and me so we can express our love and appreciation for each other. Let me know of any other ideas you come up with :] Have a wonderful Summer day!! I know its super hot here, try and stay cool! We are going for Snow Cones later!!! YUMMY!!! :D


 

Hair Success's

So today is experiment day for.... Drum Roll.... Hair!!! :] I LOVE doing hair, especially on other people because I can see what I'm doing and its just WAY easier. But since it is just Richard and me I'm the only one who can have my hair done. Unless you want to see Richard getting his hair cut, which isn't all that exciting. My whole life I have had my mommy do my hair, that was how it was. She did all of our hair and it was awesome! Sad thing is, my mommy can't follow me everywhere to do my hair.... SO.... I got to learn how to do my own. It's a lot of fun but very frustrating! Trial and error, trial and error seems to be all I do, until I FINALLY get it. So these are just a few of the things I came up with. Hope you like them. Let me know what you think and I will take any suggestions on different styles I can try. And if anyone wants their hair done let me know and I will! :D

Shopping/Food storage/Cleaning/Gardening

So today was my big shopping day for the month! I ran out of chocolate chips so we HAD to go shopping. We went to Sam's Club :] I love that place so much, always have. We restocked our kitchen and pantry for under $100, thank you very much (that should last about 2-3 months). We got a bunch of stuff in bulk for an average of about $5. I'm not going to go into how much we saved and all the equivalents and what not but I'm very proud of our shopping skills. My day was mostly reorganizing our kitchen and restocking our food storage. We got a large bottle of ketchup and I refilled our smaller ketchup bottles. I spent about $3 on the big one and refilled 3 smaller ketchup bottles that originally cost Richard around $2. Running ketchup thru a small funnel is the most time consuming, boring thing I have ever done. Good thing I had music!! When we bought our items most of them came in sets of two so we could use one and put the other in storage. Even if starting your own food storage seems to be hard, the best advice I can pass on to you is what my first visiting teacher told me. "Just buy one extra can of something. Fruit, cream of whatever, veggies, anything and go from there. But remember its food storage, STORAGE you can't just use it after you buy it, it needs to be saved (stored)." I also bought a giant can of tomato paste for spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce. But you can't just have a random giant can you leave open all the time. I put the specific amount required for the recipes in freezer bags. I have 10, 3oz (serving 3-5) and 9, 6oz (serving 7-10) bags of tomato paste that I can just put in a pot with some water and Italian spaghetti seasoning and have a sauce for anything (removing the plastic of course). This job was not a one person job, I was lucky enough to have a wonderful friend come help me :] I also cleaned our fridge and cycled new things in. And believe me, it needed it! I finished all my dishes and even tidied up the house a bit. I have clean rooms, floors, counters and even walls! :) We also have plants that I gave a new homes today. I got one for mothers day and another my husband was nice enough to get me. My pots aren't really pots (SH!) but it works and they are much bigger than the original container so the plants can grow. That's what we all need, just a little room to grow and push ourselves to be the best we can be. Now that I'm partially out of my cleaning high I should probably enjoy the rest of my day and relax. Maybe get a foot massage from my amazing husband :D We'll see what tomorrow has in store! Good night to all!

Tomato Paste to start

Tomato paste to end

Happy Plants :]

Giant Ketchup!!

My New Job!!!

Sorry but I had to post this as well. I GOT A JOB!!! I am now the new Pep Band Instructor for the Rigby High School! I had an interview this morning at 9:20 and got to talk to the Principal and the Band teacher, Mr. Weed :] Apparently he and Mr. Newton (my high school band teacher) taught together at BYUI (Ricks to them). So we had a nice conversation about Kuna and Mr. Newton. They asked me lots of questions and at the end asked how old I was. I was so nervous! You don't usually think a 19 year old should teach high school, especially when she only just graduated herself a year ago. But they were completely blown away. They said the answers I gave would "never come out of a 19 year old". That "I hit every answer spot on" and "directly on the head" for what they were looking for. I went with Mr. Weed and he showed me around a bit. He gave me all this information, as if I had already gotten the job. I went to head home and pick Richard up from school when, not an hour after the interview, the Principal called confirming I had the job. I called Mr. Weed relaying I had the job, as he requested, and he asked me to come back. He gave me a key to the band room and access to anything I wanted. He said it was my Pep Band and he would support me and stand off to the side. The Rigby band has only gotten second place once, everything else was first! This isn't for marching band though :/ (They don't have one). He said you can put any music in front of the band and they should be able to play it. I told him about my musical background and how I am more of an Orcha Dork than a Band Geek but love any thing that deals with music. He was disappointed to say that their Orchestra program has dropped increasingly because they don't know how to play. He explained that he had multiple students asking him how to play a two octave G Major scale. :'[ I wanted to CRY!!! The middle school teacher is really pumped about Orchestra but doesn't know how to teach them. I think I'm going to go in and help the orchestra out a bit and see if I can get it growing. I am so excited and I can't wait until school starts! I hope I do well. I don't want to be the one that makes this band go crash and ka boom! Wish me luck!! :]

Father's Day gifts

So as we all know Father's Day was yesterday and I got to spend the whole day with my hubby celebrating him! :] I also made father's day gifts for my daddy and my dad (father in law). This one is the present I made for my dad. He is a Financial Adviser and in the Stake High Counsel (if you want help with your money or just need to talk to someone I would request him. I can give you his info in an email!). He was released from the bishopric a few months ago and he always wears a tie BUT it has to be a skinny tie. So I fixed one of Richards old ties and made it skinny then put it on this apron. He always wears an apron when he barbeques and when he makes cookies. My daddy wears an apron every Sunday and when he makes chocolates. I don't have a picture of my daddy's because its in the wash right now. His says "Choco Maniac" because he makes YUMMY chocolates. If you ever want something just let me know and I'll pick some up for you. Email me and I can get you a list of everything he makes and the prices. They haven't seen their presents yet and I'm not sure if they look on here, Oh well! If I spoil the surprise it won't really matter because they won't get them until I go home next month :D Tell me what you think. What did you do for Father's Day?

Left or Right?

Today my day started in a freezing cold bedroom at 7:15 AM. Our window was left open and I was too chicken to get out from under the covers. But it needed to be done because today I was going on a double date with my best friend, Adell and her boy, Spencer. We decided to go on a hike! How fun is that? We got ready and headed to Jackson Hole, WY. We only got lost, I think, about three times. Finally, we decided to call our parents because they know everything. So Spencer called his dad, Adell called her mom, and I was feeling left out, so I called my mommy just to say "Hi!" Once we finally made it to our destination we were starving and wanted Subway. Our GPS was confusing us and it took us probably an hour to find the restaurant. We eventually gave in and asked the guy at Staples where to find Subway. Then we bought a map and decided on a trail to hike. After turning around probably four times, we found the visitors center, where the trail head was supposed to be. It wasn't! But they told us how to get there. We went on the Phelps Lake/Death Canyon trail. It is a four mile hike and absolutely beautiful in the Grand Teton National Park. Lots of ups and downs but worth it in the end. Richard and I went ahead so Adell and Spencer could eat their sandwiches. We went the wrong way and they followed, but they turned around before we could find each other. We had no idea where they were so we turned around and went the direction we should have gone first. Yes, we did have our cell phones. Well Richard and I had our cell phones, Adell left her's in the car but service was ridiculous so it didn't matter. Luckily we found each other! We made it to the lake and went for a frigid swim in the snow run off from the mountains. It was ok... The sun was great, until it left! :] We made our way back and enjoyed the scenery and wildlife. All in all we probably went between 7 to 8 miles which includes the hike to the trail head, the trail and our accidental scenic detour. Here are a few pictures that we got, hopefully I can get more from Spencer :] Enjoy!

P.S. The pictures don't do the actual view justice.

Baby Hat

This is the hat I've been working on, like I mentioned earlier. I was about half way done today and couldn't figure out why it looked so odd and realized that I did the base wrong. SO.... I got to start all over and it took me a good while to finish. Hence the reason I'm posting so late. Anywho this is a hat that I modified and made simpler but it's still super cute! It is perfect for a little baby :] And this also proves I have other colors besides hot pink! What do you think of me putting the flower on the hat? Comments please!! :D If you are interested I can make one for you for $8 just name the color. Thanks! Enjoy!

Hair clips and Flower

So today was an awesome day!! The electrician came to fix our breaker and found out that the problem was our disposal. The maintenance guy, who came to fix it a month ago, crossed some wires that grounded out and tripped the breaker. So a complicated job was fixed by moving a wire. How ridiculous, I go without a dishwasher and have a stinky garbage disposal full of food for two weeks for some guy to come and move a wire. I'm VERY grateful that it is fixed and for the trial of patience and the good times of washing dishes in my bath tub. Anyone can make banana bread out of mushy banana's but it takes someone to enjoy the mess you make with friends. Then enjoy the fruits of your labor. (and clean up afterwards) Anywho today I started a few different things. I started a baby blanket and a baby hat. Those are not done yet BUT I do have a few flower's and hair bow clips that are done and I'll share those with you.

Let me know which one is your favorite and others you would like me to try! Thanks and enjoy :]
$1.50 a bow
$2.00 a flower

Baby skirts! :]

In all honesty my husband did most of this one because today was cleaning day for me. Our breaker went out for half of the kitchen so I don't have a dishwasher or a garbage disposal. So I got to wash our dishes in the bath tub because they have been sitting in the dishwasher for over a week because they guy still hasn't come. Don't worry I washed my entire bathroom before I washed the dishes. He was supposed to come today but never did :/ Oh well at least my house is clean and I have clean dishes. Anywho I did do a good portion of this project but Richard found the idea and he got it started for me. Baby jean skirt with a stretchy waist to fit around their cute bellies. You can wear it with what ever onesie you want and put baby legs under it for more color. (Keep coming back to see when I get some baby legs put on here) How simple! I can make one for your little sweetheart for $4 you can design what ever embellishment you want on it or leave it plain. This is the flower I crocheted earlier and I want your opinion on where it should go. I think I will do two little ones to go on the sides of this big one but I'm not sure where to put it. I'll take any comments or ideas! Thanks!

Top Left

Top Right

Bottom Left

Bottom Right