Not So Crafty Friday

I have been wanting this cute, cross body bag from Target. Having a husband in school and working for minimum wage, you don't exactly have money coming out your ears. Anyway, I decided to go the "cheap" way (so I thought). I decided I'd make this bag! I have only ever made a skirt, and I wouldn't really say that I made it. It was more like I assisted my amazingly talented sister-in-law (You find her blog here.) So far, I have cute the pieces out. Turns out that I have no idea what interfacing is! I bought the completely wrong kind and it was way too stiff. On top of that, the bag from Target is $25. Before I had to go back to Joann's to get the right kind of interfacing, I had already spend $27. So much for the cheap route! I think that being cheap when sewing is a learned skill. Maybe one day I will learn it. I hope at least. There are lots of things I want to sew and if I can do it the cheaper way, that would be fantastic!

Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to the best Dad in the whole world! I wouldn't be the person I am without you in my life. Thank you for all that you have done, all that you do and all I know you will continue to do for me and my someday family! 

I love you Daddy!

My Daddy and I as a baby!

My Daddy and I before I was baptized.

My wonderful and handsome father holding my bouquet at my wedding. This is by far my favorite picture. 

Crafty Me Monday!

I don't know if the Monday thing will continue, but it fit, so I went with it. Anyway! I made a Bazinga Board! I found the idea on Pinterest (where else?) from here and I loved it! I love The Big Bang Theory and I've been looking for ways for my kids at school to have more fun while learning (especially since it's summer now!), so it was perfect! (In case you've never seen the show, "Bazinga" is one of the characters signature words) This board has such a wide range of uses though! Phonics, math, science even. So far I have only used it for exercise purposes (I was desperate for them to let our some energy). I put different exercises on cards and stuck them in the slots. I had them shout "BAZINGA!" whenever they drew a card and then we'd go do the exercise for roughly 30 seconds each. They are 3 year olds people! They can only do squats for so long! It was pretty cute though, I have to say. If you want a laugh though, get a 3 year old to do jumping jacks! They are very spastic seeing as they are still learning a lot of gross motor skills...such as coordination. 

Anyway, here is how I did it! I went to Office Max, looking for the library pockets that they used to put the stamp cards in for the back of the books? Do you remember those? They didn't have any (SURPRISE!), but even more surprising, they had floppy disk, adhesive pockets. What their actual purpose was once upon a time, I have no idea, but they were perfect for my project! I had some stencils for the letters at home already, as well as the scrapbook paper. From there, it was a lot of measuring! The top left pocket is really the only slightly crooked pocket. I was fairly happy with myself though. It was a good feeling to make something successfully! Hopefully it will continue! 

New Apartment!

  It's taken me long enough to post this, but for those of you who knew or cared that we moved, here is our new place!

That's the front door, going into the kitchen, obviously. 

Other side of the kitchen.

Across from the sink. 

Entry to the dining/living room.

Excuse the mess. Dustin was cleaning his gun.

Sorry it's blurry. I was in a hurry taking pictures and didn't notice. You get the idea though. :)

The red chair. I love it! We weren't allowed to paint, but I wanted some color. 

Looking away from the red chair.

Our bedroom. Again, sorry about it being blurry.

To the bathroom.

Our shower curtain. I love it. That's really the only reason it's on here. :) 

And our vanity. See the yellow washboard? I painted that. I'm becoming crafty! Slowly, but surly! 

"Working for a Living"

Have you heard the song, "Working for a Living" by Huey Lewis and the News? I was just thinking about Dustin and I, our life together, and how we always HAVE to work and this song came to mind. All we do is work! We don't work for fun, we work because we are living paycheck to paycheck. This isn't anything new, obviously, but I was just thinking about this and I hadn't blogged in a while so I thought I would share my thoughts.

I know this might make me sound baby hungry, and you know what? That could very well be correct, but I honestly cannot wait until I can be at home with my kiddo(s). It will be so nice to be able to take a vacation when I want to without having to think, "Well, if I stop working, our whole world will crash down and we won't be able to eat or pay rent."

I'm sure it won't be that much different once we have kids and Dustin has a real job (not to demean his job as a research assistant, but you know what I mean, a job not in college). We'll have kids to pay for and I've heard they are expensive. At least that's what my parents have told me since before I can remember. Something about owing them a few hundred thousand dollars, but still. Dustin will most likely have vacation time that he can use when we want to go visit family.

Here's the song for your listening pleasure. :) (Sorry about his performance. I have decided he's not a very good live performer for some reason.)



Well, now, for the good news! We are looking at plane tickets! We are planning on coming out for TWO weeks. 2! I am so stinking excited! I get to make up for not being home for Christmas!

I didn't think that it would be this hard to be away from family, seeing as I've been living out here for, what? Four years now? Crazy! Anyway, I didn't think that it would be hard. I even remember thinking to myself when I saw my sister-in-law start crying one Christmas when her parents called, "Why's she crying? It's not that big of a deal." (Sorry Erin!!!) But now, I completely understand! It's not that you're not there, well, partly, but it's that it's what you DO! You're supposed to be home for Christmas. That's when everyone else is home too. And when you get married you expect your mind set to change (at least I did) to what was now my new life and new traditions of not being home for Christmas, but it just doesn't work that way.

We will be coming home for the 4th of July and I am so STINKING excited to see my whole crazy, goofy, loving family! And it will be a good chance for my siblings to get to know my husband. :) Only a few of them have gotten to know him a little bit. I had to introduce Dustin to one of my brother's as my husband! I didn't think that would've ever happened, but they met at the wedding reception. Oh well! Can't change it now. It was just a little weird. I think mainly because it was the first I called Dustin my husband. :)

Anyway, that's it for my ramblings. I am going to try and post every Sunday. Don't hold me to that. I have said things like this in the past and I never hold to it. Maybe since I've told the world (not that that many people read this) I'll stick to it this time. Have a fantastic week and maybe you'll hear from us again next Sunday.

LIfe in Utah

Life has been pretty great! That's really all I can say. It's been cold though!

Our apartment doesn't have any insulation. I mean...ANY. The crawl space has nothing. The walls are made of bricks and cinder blocks, and we have single paned windows. It kinda stinks, but we're trying to keep warm! We keep our apartment at a comfortable 50 degrees and use a ton of blankets. The heater will sometimes kick on, but for the most part we suck it up, or rather Dustin sucks it up and I'll sometimes whine about it. :)

We have our first Christmas tree too! It's kind of exciting. We even got a special "Our First Christmas" ornament that has our picture in it and everything. It was Dustin's idea so that our future kiddos can say something like, "You and mom looked like that!" It was a funny thought, so we got it.

Other news: There really isn't any. We're both happy and loving life. :)

Craftiness in the Making

I've been addicted to a website called Pinterest.com. I get to go on this website and look at all the things that I can't even dream of making, cooking, living in, going to, and so forth (you get the idea). So, I decided to one up myself (if you can do that) and try to be crafty! This was my inspiration. Dustin hates it when I leave my make up out on the counter. I rarely do, unless I'm in a hurry to get to work, but to avoid this problem, this is my solution!

So we went on a hunt yesterday for a cute frame...we looked in several places, and could not find a single frame that would work. As we were leaving the last one, Dustin saw an old wash board someone had given to the store. He saw the potential in it right away (something that he's teaching me to do) and so we got it. He has already taken it apart for me to spray paint. I would've, but I knew that I would end up breaking it most likely, so I let him. It just needs to be sanded and spray painted! I'm rather excited to see how my first real craft turns out. Wish me luck!!!



He was making a face because I had him stop right before he started taking it apart so I could take a picture. :)