Sticking to it!

i'll be the first to admit that i'm terrible at sticking with goals. my mom is amazing at it. goals for reading the book of mormon, goals for working out every day, goals of eating good. i on the other hand am amazing for 2 weeks and not amazing at all for 2 weeks and then amazing and then not amazing. i need to learn to be consistent. I am super excited however because i weighed in this morning and had lost 2 lbs! that makes 9 total! and even though i don't always do the best i haven't completely given up and i'm just giddy that i haven't gained. so this is me, being super excited for myself.

the Kitchen Table 2 months in the making

I bought our kitchen table from the di at the end of april. I'm one of those people that likes to make things look better. so when i saw all the fun details this table had i knew it had great potential. so it sat until one day i decided i was sick of looking at all it's problems, my friend Adrianne said she would love to come help and so it began. While we had 80% of it sanded our landlord who was working on the trailer behind us decided we needed help, which was probably the case. He set us up with a fancy sander and we got the rest done pretty quick, he also decided the was i had in mind to make it work would actually work so good. so we were sent to fielding to see some cabinets he had in his house because he could paint the table like that really easy he said. so we decided to go for it and ended up taking it to his son's cabinet shop where Darren and I went back and sanded in for another 3 hours. And then we left it to get painted.... and waited... and waited.... and waited. All the while Darren was asking me when the table would get done. which is funny because when we bought it he was sure we didn't need a table, and when i started fixing it up he was sure that was a dumb idea. some people don't see the vision. anyways so the other day my dad needed a project so we went to see what was going on. It was still sitting there and we knew the cabinet people were was behind and wouldn't get to it for a long time so we stole it back! and my dad after noticing how lovely sanded it was and the grain he exclaimed was great! Came up with the idea we should stain it, but i for sure wanted a red table. so we took stain and made the people at Ace put red dye in it and when we got done it was pretty, but a little too rusty looking for me. so we sanded the clear coat (of course we got to the clear coat before i decided it wouldn't do) and pulled our the brightest red paint i had bought in the beginning and when my dad started a thin coat we knew that was the look. you could see the wood grain but the red was bright enough and the rust went away. I love how it looks and Yesterday we got 2 chairs and a bench from walmart and ate our first meal at a table in probably 2 and a half years!

Favorite Song Friday.... Colbie Caillat - Begin Again - Live Walmart Soundcheck

My Christmas Wish List

The questions been thrown about quite a bit lately, and i for one am X-cited for Christmas. I don't usually make a big deal about wanting anything or making lists until it dawned on me, people like to have ideas, they are going to get you something anyways, why not get what you want? Spoiled, yes. snobby, perhaps.

So here is my list:
The Pioneer Woman Cook book (already gave this idea to someone)
A Handy Chopper  (or similar device)
A Hair staightener ( the kind they have at the salon that insta-straighten in one pass)
6 Kitchen chairs. Yes 6.
A Dutch Oven
Thick Denim Camping Blanket
shake weight (yes i make fun of them, but they probably still work your arms like crazy)
And if someone really wanted to spoil me a RED kitchen aid.

Halloween decor

so Halloween is my favorite holiday, I'm loving all the decorations up at my house. It's funny how things work at one house and then you move an have to find places for thinks. Like my BOO letters, i had them on the wall last year, but we have less wall space at our new place, so i had to get creative, i really like them on our bar chairs!

the Living Planet Aquarium

so yesterday we decided to get out of the house and do something. We decided to go with Stetsen, Bethany, Liz and Brayden to the Living Planet Aquarium. I have to say that despite smelling like 50 fish tanks it was really awesome! They even had areas for betting sting rays, star fish, snakes, ect. I was a little too chicken to pet anything. I'm pretty sure the penguins were my favorite, i love watching them swim and just pop out of the water. Darren loved looking at a python, and these really ugly giant fish we never found the name of. The shark tank was pretty nifty as well as the sea turtle who was recovering from bubble butt (which is an actual ailment for sea turtles) She had been bit by a shark and hit by a boat.

Free patterns, don't mind if i do

http://www.lovelycrow.com/2011/09/free-crochet-patterns-today-only.html
Go here and do whatever it takes to get some really cute free patterns. I'm having a hard time trying to pick one.

Still going...

The work out routine is going very well. I wake up at 7:30 and hop onto the elliptical right off. I always swore i would hate waking up to work out but it's made a big difference. I have no excuses if it's already a part of the routine. Last week i had to mental beat myself up to get out of bed, this week i just grunt and get up. I think it helps that i read while i'm putting my 30 minutes in. The crunches are getting easier too. My next step is getting rid of soda, it puts me over on calories every time i have it.

Favorite song Frinday (the return of) Florence + The Machine - Dog Days Are Over (2010 Version)

I'm sure that after summer is over i will be more on top of things, in the meanwhile, doesn't this song just make you want to run? and doesn't the music video just make you want to scratch your head?

Re-Dedicating

I've decided I am picking up my desire to be fit and healthy again. my main goal is to last more than 2 weeks, i do great for 2 weeks and then hit a brick wall. I started a 100 crunch month long challenge with my best friend Adrianne. We are good motivation for each other. Our inspiration was out dance class in high school. we used to have to do what seemed like a million crunches every day, but you know, we had rock solid abs in the end. So that's the goal.

LaLa La La Elmo's Quilt

My little bud Brayden is up from Texas! I was so excited for him to come i decided i needed to make him something! My mom made him an elmo afgan, and i made this quilt and elmo. We started tuesday night and finished friday. whew! it was so worth it to see him get all excited, and now he carries elmo with him everywhere! The fun part about the quilt is we used what we had on hand, it's a little smaller than a twin size, so perfect for snuggling. 

the craft bug...

All i want to do lately is craft! It's like a disease, a curse really. The house is a mess, there's work to be done, i can't sleep at night, and my wallet sure can't afford it. Lucky we have lots of stuff on hand i can make at least. here's a few things i made in the last week. the shoes will have snaps so you can change out the flowers, i'll probably add 2 more colors. the penguin hat was fun. i just used a reg pattern and changed it to match an idea i saw.

man oh man.

this week officially sucks. and i'm getting cranky. so warning to all there's about to be some complaining. Yesterday Darren came home from work with papers that needed signed from we went to the chiropractor a week ago. If he didn't have them signed right then he's get written up at work the next day. and why weren't they filled out right? because the idiot told us he was "too busy" to fill them out when we went to him the first time. so when i called him up to see if we could just fax them (he lives an hour away) he told me he didn't have a fax machine. so then we set it up to drive down there and get them signed. long story short we spent 3 hours trying to get a hold of him and thankfully our best friend is his nephew, he had to give us directions to the guys house. and all he said when we got there was "oh i am not feeling good. and i must have left my phone somewhere." he sounded pretty lame saying it i tell you. i was so frustrated i could have punched someone in the teeth.

Annoyingly Whinny Story #2: This morning my mom calls me before 9 and says i need to hurry and get to work. the color guard order was upset about something with their shirts and she didn't want to be alone when they came in (a united front is always better when dealing with fussy women). so i finished brushing my teeth and ran over. the message on our answering machine says they are upset and want new shirts made, the transfers have "scorched" a ton shirts so bad and they look horrible. My mom had them bring the shirts that were "scorched" in so we could look at them. They brought in 10 shirts that were a little yellow from the iron. this is caused because the irons are heated to 400 degrees and the shirts are white and when we make them they don't always have time to cool completely before another shirt is stacked on. it happens every time we make shirts. the solution. let it get some air, put it in the dryer, wash it, set it in the sun. any of these will fix it 100%. easy fix. i told her if i made new ones they would look the same. she acted like all the mothers would be pissed because of it and wanted to know what to do when they complain. i told her to send them in.

honestly i am just totally fed up with people. this whole week has been like this. so it's hermitude time!   

Menu board

A friend of the family offered us some messed up cabinets from his business. We have gone crazy for them! I have made a ton to sell at the shop, when showing them to my friend Mariam she gave me this great idea. i tried really hard to make it to sell, but i had to have it in my kitchen. i know it looks little kiddish, but i think it will look sweet in my vintage red yellow pink kitchen. i'm really excited to take it home tonight. it was so easy to make, only took me about 45 minutes including drying time (i cheated and put it outside in the sun, it baked it real quick). I really hope we get some more cabinets soon, they are been so fun!

the most fantastic fabric ever!

 while at hobby lobby the other day i found this fantastic fabric. i had to have it! I decided to make aprons out of it, One to sell and one for me. then i had an idea! what if i decorated my sewing room with it?! Best idea ever! i have a chair i plan to re upholster with it an curtains and maybe one of those wall hang things with the ribbon you put pictures in. Then i could add from there. only problem is it's supposed to be the baby's room once we have one. maybe i'll still do it. there's no baby yet.

The Narrows

We had a blast camping at the Oneida Narrow's the weekend of July 8th. We just spent the night, but we floated the river about 5 times, ate yummy tin foil dinners and roasted jumbo marshmallows. It rained Friday night while we were on the river still and pored for about an hour so we waited it out in the jeep. It was really nice, easy going. We had a little scare when Kelton and Eric sang the canoe in a deeper/faster part of the river. Plus they didn't have any paddles once they got it turned right side up again. Darren went down every time on his stomach so the backs of his legs were burnt something fierce. They are still bright red and pealing. I'm just glad we had such a fun time, i'd gladly go again (I'd sunscreen every half hour this time though).