Halloween 2013

Does it make me nerdy because I like the fact that "Halloween 2013" is a rhyme?

Let me tell you, we had sooooo much fun this Halloween! It wasn't hard to beat last year though, with Chris working and me not doing anything. 

We sure turned that around this year!

 

We decided to dress up about two days before this. That's kinda how I roll though, I'm not excited, not excited, not excited, then suddenly within 2-5 days before Halloween I suddenly catch the bug and go all "LET'S DO THIS!" 

But, I think our costumes came together pretty dang well for such short notice. 

We started off the night with a minor candy crisis. You have to understand, since we've been married, we've never had trick-or-treaters. First we lived in a college town, in a basement: no trick-or-treaters. Then, we moved up north, again into a basement: no trick-or-treaters. So obviously, once we moved into our house, what reason had we to expect any different?

Except....

children overrun the ENTIRE neighborhood here. ESPECIALLY on Halloween. 

There are over 150 kids JUST in our ward.

So 5:30pm rolls around, and I can't figure out why our doorbell keeps ringing.

When it finally clicked, Chris & I shared a mutual look of horror. We had zero candy. We frantically dug through boxes, kitchen drawers, and backpacks to finally come up with a half-bag of airheads. Chris used those while I ran to the store and picked up 3 more bags. We were only going to be home for about 45 minutes, or as long as it took us to get our costumes on, and then we were going to Chris's mom's for some homemade chili. Mmmm. So of course I figured that 3 bags would be more than enough. 

{Do you like the skeleton photo-bomber?}

Well, in the short half-hour it took us to get ready, we ran through ALL. THREE. BAGS.

Holy trick-or-treaters batman.

At Susan's house we enjoyed some delicious food, and tried to avoid getting detention from Professor Snape.

Next in line for the night was a dance at the U of U. We met up with a couple friends and their friends, and danced and shouted and put our hands up like the ceiling couldn't hold us. 

{see what I did there?}

But really, it was so much fun. 

After a few hours of music madness we hopped over to visit my brother who happens to be attending school there. And then finally, at about 1am, a very tired mad hatter and her king of hearts crawled into bed and called it quits.

It was a great Halloween!

Easy & Adorable DIY Fabric Flowers

A couple weeks ago, I helped put together a baby shower for my sister-in-law. I picked the invitations and decorations, because she was having a little girl. And who doesn't want to decorate for a little girl??

These are the invitations I created:

I was pretty proud. I think they turned out so cute!

For decorations, I needed something simple, but still adorable. After searching pinterest for a couple hours a little bit, I found a really easy fabric flower garland. 

Here are the instructions:

First, gather up all your extra scraps of fabric, your scissors, and your hot glue gun.

Then, grab something to use as the base for your flowers. I used a combo of some old interfacing and some blue felt. Trace a small circle {smaller than you want your flower} and cut it out.

Be smart like I wasn't, and layer up your fabric from the very beginning to cut out several at once.

Then, layer up your flower fabric and cut out a slightly larger circle.

Take one circle and fold it in half, then in half again.

Do this to four circles, then glue them to your base circle like so:

Fold two more circles into quarters. You need a total of six folded circles to make each flower.

Glue the last two circles right in the very center of your flower.

If you want, you can clip the tips before you glue so they sit a little flatter.

Repeat this process six million times. I recommend having a good tv show {or several} to watch.

I ended up making two different sizes of flowers, along with a fabric-scrap letter. You can find instructions on how to make one yourself here.

If you are making a garland with your flowers, simply hot glue them to a piece of twine or string. I used twine, and used big lace bows to string it up. I can't believe I forgot to get a picture, but there you go. 

Here are a couple pictures of the table:

I thought the flowers were a cute little touch. And, if the other little children at the shower don't try to eat them, you can re-use them. {maybe some DIY hair clips or headbands!}

I would love to try my hand at making some different styles of fabric flowers, maybe to use as home decor. Or maybe just for fun because they are so pretty.

Just look how gorgeous!

{you can find all these on my pinterest account.}

3 Days of Birthday

This is kinda how I felt this year. 

Fantastically excited, for no apparent reason. Sweeeeet.

Besides, you only turn 23 once, right?

Chris kicked off the beginning of my 'birthday week' (a tradition from his family, I am so not complaining) with a surprise bonfire with all of our friends. 

We burned 3 couches, a chair, a tree, and various boards torn from an old deck. Said items were doused in gasoline, and lit with a roman candle {I kid you not}. It was possibly the most epic fire I have ever been to. I'll try and find some pictures.

The next day, Sunday, Chris managed to get all of our friends to hang out with us again. 

{Maybe he paid them?}

 Everyone brought some food, and we had a grand old time barbecuing and enjoying each other's company.

Day THREE, Monday {my actual birthday}, we both had to work, but we did go out to dinner at Wingers.

  Mmmm. I love me some Sticky Fingers.

And then....I got a new camera.

If I tried to tell you how excited I am it would only come out as high-pitched squeals and gasping sounds.

  I. Am. Thrilled.

I really couldn't have asked for a better 23rd birthday. I got to hang out with my friends, watch my husband light several things {including himself, once} on fire, eat cupcakes, drink Dew, and mindlessly devour lots and LOTS of sour, neon-bright gummy worms. {They are my top favorite candy.} {I got a 5 lb. bag and am probably going to make myself sick.}

Anniversary Weekend (Awwww)

This last weekend was our 1 year anniversary. 

Holy COW! Where on earth did a whole year go??? 

Chris & I got to relax in a hotel up north for a couple days. It was soooooo nice! LET me tell you, I never realized how much I liked not having to make the bed. I had my first-ever massage (mmm), we got to eat at this wonderful little waffle shop, and had a hot tub at our disposal. 

Let me introduce you to the best-most-amazing waffle place ever.

BRUGE'S. 

IT. IS. AMAAAAAZING.

Vanilla waffle with fresh strawberries!

The cone of fries.

The machine-gun sandwich. 

They offer waffles, fries, and one sandwich. 

Aaaand my mouth is watering all over again. Moving on.

Rainbow Trout--the One Fish I Can Recognize

Fishing is awesome. It really is. It gives you an excuse to kick back near a lake, read a book, and enjoy the day. Which I did. Not really expecting to catch anything. And then the pole moved.

TWICE.

Thats about when I started yelling for Chris.

It started flopping and I was NOT letting it touch me. Shut up.

And would you believe it, we proceeded to catch THREE MORE.

Costa Rica & Refurbishing

This last weekend Chris & I got to do something very special...welcome Chris's best friend home from his mission! We were so excited to meet him at the airport...can you tell?

And when he finally arrived...surprise! He's now taller than Chris.

Hahah...sucka.


On a COMPLETELY different note... the dresser I was re-doing is FINISHED!
Finally.
Phew.

Vegas in Brief: Pictures with Short Words.

CHEESECAKE.

RAINBOW.

FREE.

PUMA.

AMBUSHED.

JULIUS.

THUMBS-UP.

MANLY.

SUSHI.

REASSURING.

LICK.



Ta-daaaa!