you make me very, very happy.

Seeing websites like this, commercials like this, and hand-sanitizers like this (below) make me very very happy.



Look how cute that is! And I get one for my desk at work! It makes me want to use hand sanitizer every five seconds. Good thing I placed it out of arm's reach. :)

I was rushing to wrap one of Tyler's birthday presents yesterday afternoon, and decided instead of driving all the way to Walmart or Target to get wrapping paper, I'd make my own for free. Tyler didn't even believe me that I made it myself. He had to inspect the package more thoroughly and find the seams of the three papers taped together to believe me!

HOW I DID IT: I used three large sheets of cover paper (80 lb. that I got from Zellerbach), probably 11x17 or somewhere around those dimensions. I took my alphabet stamps and stamped each letter one-by-one on rows on the paper. It did take an hour and a half, but I love how it turned out. I got the hang of it pretty quickly so the last two sheets went faster. Then I taped them together to cover the present, and wrapped it up with some red rafia. I love rafia...so many uses! (I tried red ribbon, but it was too bold. I wanted the focus to be on the wrapping, and not so much the bow.)

Happy birthday, Mr. Jones! I can't wait to see what's inside. ;)

Happy Birthday, Morgan! (And Untel Tyler!)

Yesterday afternoon I (attempted) to make a cake to celebrate Morgan's birthday. (It's also sort-of for Tyler's birthday, but I think when we come back to Provo after our trip I'm going to make him a giant, under-cooked chocolate chip cookie with ice cream on top. He'll love it.) As you can see from the picture, it really did turn out great! Except I didn't show you the detail work...I forgot to freeze the slices after I cut them, so frosting them was a nightmare. Crumbs were everywhere and huge chunks fell off and it was just a terrible experience. So the fish is teal, pink, and yellow cake colored. A lot of the sides I left unfrosted. Then, when I woke up this morning, the front of the fishie fell off completely. So the cake really was at its best when I took the above photograph.

But I don't think Morgan will mind because we have lots of M&Ms!

isn't this delightful? i'd love to stencil this on my bedroom wall one day.

Raindrops and Romance

Raindrops kept falling on our heads yesterday...raindrops the size of lemons! Look how big these drops were! The thunder, lightning, and lemon-drop storm came and went in a matter of five minutes.


On a funnier note, this is the post-it that I found stuck to my computer monitor at work this morning:


Oh, boy...you've got to watch out for those church boys. (There is a ward that meets in here on Sundays and apparently one of them wrote it.) As you can see, he left his number. I looked it up and it's a real number in Provo, Utah. So upon suggestion from Tyler, I texted him: "Joe - I'd love to go out for a night of delightful romance. Can my husband come?"

We'll see if anything comes of it!


(I apologize for it being all smeared. One of our beloved office plants is dying and I over watered it this morning, causing water to go EVERYWHERE. I killed about a third of a paper towel roll of trees trying to clean it up. I think the thing I really will never be good at is watering and keeping plants alive. How will I ever keep children alive?!)

Here's a picture of Tyler and I (taken by a coworker's wife) at his work picnic a few Saturday's ago. I can always count on Tyler to make a funny face in a photo...

21 on the 20th of June

For my birthday yesterday, Tyler made everything super secretive. He made me breakfast (yum!) and then we went out the door to run errands (i.e., go to the grocery store). Apparently running to the grocery store meant hopping on the freeway, with me really confused as to where the heck we were going!

Surprise! We arrived at Ikea. I love Ikea.

We got a new couch! HOORAY! I'm really excited because we've started planning things we buy around having a family, so we got a nice leather couch so it would be kid-proof for years to come. And we also got a kid-proof coffee table. I love Ikea...everything cheap and reliable, but always keeps that modern but homely type of feel. It's pretty much the perfect decorating store for our budget and our style.

We also go rained out last week when we went to an outdoor theater to see Beauty and the Beast. Luckily they let us use our tickets at anytime to go see it again, so we went last night on my birthday. It was awesome! We loved it! Our friends Alex & Kami and Kristin & Zach met us there as well. We all had a lot of fun. We were worried that it was going to rain again because it had been raining ALL day (pouring, actually), and it rained up until about twenty minutes before the show was supposed to start. Luckily it was clear, blue skies by 8pm!

Thank you, love! Everything was perfect and I loved spending the whole day with you. :)

An Early Birthday Present

It's been really hard with Tyler gone, even if it has only been a day. I can't wait until he comes home late tonight! I've found myself crying uncontrollably at the most inconvenient times--for example, last night I went to a relief society couponing club (which was fabulous, I might add) and they asked the typical, "how are you today?" question, and I about burst into tears. Only a few teardrops shed later, the club distracted me enough for an hour and a half. But when I got home, I broke down again and sobbed uncontrollably.

I think Tyler must have expected this. I really am an emotional person, and will break down crying when I burn dinner just a little bit. But last night was bad. Even when I thought about him, the tears started coming. Anyway, long story short. My birthday is tomorrow, and Tyler is a very good secrets-keeper. Last night while on the phone with him, he asked me what I was doing to keep me occupied. He knows I love to read, but I explained the book I was reading to him wasn't helping me feel better (it's called The Lovely Bones and is actually quite good so far, except for the fact that it's about a girl that was raped and murdered and is watching her family down on earth from heaven try to cope with her death). He then walked me through the bedroom (over the phone of course) and told me he's been keeping a book for my birthday (which is tomorrow) and he wanted me to have it early. It's perfect.

It's called The Tales of Beedle the Bard, written by J.K. Rowling. It's fantastic! It's already impressed me and so far I've only read the introduction. Here is Amazon.com's summary:

"Offering the trademark wit and imagination familiar to Rowling's legions of readers--as well as Aesop's wisdom and the occasional darkness of the Brothers Grimm--each of these five tales reveals a lesson befitting children and parents alike: the strength gained with a trusted friendship, the redemptive power of love, and the true magic that exists in the hearts of all of us. Rowling's new introduction also comments on the personal lessons she has taken from the Tales, noting that the characters in Beedle's collection "take their fates into their own hands, rather than taking a prolonged nap or waiting for someone to return a lost shoe," and "that magic causes as much trouble as it cures."

But the true jewel of this new edition is the enlightening and comprehensive commentary (including extensive footnotes!) by Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who brings his unique wizard's-eye perspective to the collection. Discovered "among the many papers which Dumbledore left in his will to the Hogwarts Archives," the venerable wizard's ruminations on the Tales allow today's readers to place them in the context of 16th century Muggle society, even allowing that "Beedle was somewhat out of step with his times in preaching a message of brotherly love for Muggles" during the era of witch hunts that would eventually drive the wizarding community into self-imposed exile. In fact, versions of the same stories told in wizarding households would shock many for their uncharitable treatment of their Muggle characters.

Professor Dumbledore also includes fascinating historical backstory, including tidbits such as the history and pursuit of magic wands, a brief comment on the Dark Arts and its practitioners, and the struggles with censorship that eventually led "a certain Beatrix Bloxam" to cleanse the Tales of "much of the darker themes that she found distasteful," forever altering the meaning of the stories for their Muggle audience. Dumbledore also allows us a glimpse of his personal relationship to the Tales, remarking that it was through "Babbity Rabbity and Her Cackling Stump" that "many of us [wizards] first discovered that magic could not bring back the dead."

Thank you, Tyler!

I need to clear my mind.

There's a clogging class full of little kids right across the hall from my office. All day, the instructor has been shouting the line from High School Musical, "What team?" and the little kids will scream, "WILDCATS!!!" They are also learning the HSM "We're All in This Together" dance. I kind of want to go watch them (and maybe learn it?!). They're so into it that it's kind of cute. But then again, the fact that they've been screaming and cheering and clogging all day is pinching my every last nerve.

The office has been really dead today, and it's been almost eerie. And every once in a while (like right now, actually), the entire room will shake as if in a small earthquake. I don't think it's an earthquake or the clogging kids, but something to do with the air conditioner being fixed. Man, it's warming up in here.

Tyler is gone. I dropped him off at the airport bright and early this morning, and he'll be gone til tomorrow night. It's a strange feeling. I'm sure most of you married folk have been without your spouse at one time or another, but do you remember the first time it happened? We haven't been through this before. I think it's affecting me a lot more than it is Tyler...but then again, he's sure got a lot to keep him busy. He's the one traveling to far, exotic places (like to the Ernst & Young office in Irvine, CA), meeting new people, and eating good food. I already cried a bit on my drive from the airport to work today, and tonight shouldn't be any better.

I don't like to be alone. And it's not like I have children to keep me company, it's just me, myself, and I in our little apartment for two days. And I'm scared of the dark. (Have I admitted that before?) I hate being alone with the thoughts in my head when the lights are out...all the ghost stories I've ever heard and every horror movie I've ever watched comes to the front of my mind. So tonight should be interesting. You might get a phone call from me. Good thing Tyler will only be gone one night.

{On a final note: There goes the building shaking again.There's a soft rumbling, and then it seems to come closer and closer until the room starts shaking. I feel like things could come crashing down at any moment! The door is rattling and the pictures are vibrating, and I'm the only one here. Did we go over the fire drill plan when I was hired? Oh boy.}

hahaha

"In the year 3000, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook will merge to form one super time-wasting website called YouTwitFace." - Conan O'Brien

TYLER GOT A 94% ON HIS ACCOUNTING FINAL!

{i'm so proud of him! this class has been brutal for him (it is for everyone, actually...even accounting majors themselves hate this class. when people hear
you're taking accounting 210, they all say, "oh jeez...i'm sorry. that sucks!
and during spring semester? wow. good luck, man...")
he's really worked hard this semester, and progressively done better and better on every test. he's studied consistently almost everyday for about two hours or more, and taken dozens of quizzes on top of that, and taken
a computer science class at the same time. he deserves an A for sure!
way to go, love! i'm so proud of you!!!}

free download (menu planner)

Here's a free download from Loveland Miscellany that I thought I'd pass along. It's a menu planner. Download it here.


Instructions (striaght from Loveland Miscellany's blog):

Click on the image above. Save image to your computer. Dimensions are 19.625" x 15.75" but image can easily be cropped to most other standard dimensions. As is, the image will fit well in an Ikea Ribba frame.

To print the large image, try a printer such as Kinkos. I printed my poster at Kinkos for just under $10.

Place image in a frame, under glass. Fill in your menu each week by writing on the glass in dry or wet erase marker!

humor from the DU

spotlight: duane hanson

Duane Hanson, Man on a Bench

Duane Hanson, Traveller

Duane Hanson, Queenie II

Aren't these amazing and incredibly life-like? My art history teacher, Heather Jensen (loved her!), introduced us to Duane Hanson's wax sculptures. I'd love to go see them in a museum someday; I heard they are so real that people actually go up and try to talk to them! How great is that??

KitchenAid

For our wedding, Tyler and I received a really nice, $30 set of KitchenAid mixing bowls. They are a beautiful red color, but that didn't last long. It's been just under six months and the inside of the bowls look all scuffed up and pink (instead of red). To make matters worse, the smallest bowl has three large cracks in the bottom!

I was really disappointed about how poorly the bowls have held up, so I emailed KitchenAid Customer Service. Within two days they emailed me back, apologized, and are sending me a brand new set in the mail, free of charge. I don't even have to send the broken one back; they told me to just throw it away. That's what I call good customer service! Thank you, KitchenAid! It doesn't fix the problem with the bowls, but it sure is nice to know someone out there cares enough to replace them.

this made me cry.

Starting this Sunday, June 12, there is a 3-day silent auction on behalf of Carol Decker. Carol went to the hospital to deliver a baby, but came away blind and as a triple amputee from this, and has had a long and hard recovery. She lost her eyesight, both legs below the knees, and her left arm. Reading bits and pieces from her husband's blog brought tears to my eyes, and made me grateful for the blessings I have in my life.

My Portfolio

My portfolio...is online now. hooray!

ch-ch-check it out here. Also, there's a link off to the right of my blog.

It contains my cd packaging, magazine redesign, logo and branding, poster designs, and miscellaneous goodies.

love it!

"Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh everyday, ah, now that's a real treat." --Joanne Newman

AND even better than that quote, this music video from Regina Spektor. I'm slightly obsessed with her right now. I get really excited at work when her songs come on my pandora radio station.

promotion!

Tyler got promoted today (he is now a "senior developer"), & got a raise! Congratulations, love!

Sensuous Sandwich

YUM! Tyler just brought me lunch at work. How thoughtful! :)

We've heard many good things about this sandwich place, Sensuous Sandwich. I have to admit, I love the name. How clever! The sandwiches were delicious, and no more expensive than Subway, either. The bread (compared to Subway's), was extremely soft, which made all the difference. I didn't have all those little crumbs going everywhere each time I took a bite. My review: 9/10. I'd go there again!

>>reduce, reuse, recycle

THE PROBLEM:

Tyler and I go shopping about once or twice a week, running various errands around town. He's become accustomed to my insistence on hitting up two different grocery stores: Sunflower Market for our produce, and Smith's for everything else. About once or twice a month we also run to Costco, Walmart, etc. I'm not sure how many of you have this problem, but it seems as if by the time we get everything put away in the house, Tyler and I are up to our ears in plastic grocery bags. It's frustrating because we don't know where to put them! I've been storing them in a huge plastic bucket underneath the sink, but have yet to actually "recycle" a plastic bag by using it for something else.

Facts from reusablebags.com:
♥ According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion)
♥ Plastic bags don't biodegrade, they photodegrade - breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.
♥ Each high quality reusable shopping bag you use has the potential to eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic bags over its lifetime.


THE SOLUTION:

I've decided our family needs to join the revolution and "go green" with the fabric/canvas/reusable bag option. However, I can't find anywhere online to get 5 or 6 plain canvas bags; everywhere only seems to offer them in bulk of 100 or more. I was tempted to go with Sunflower Market's reusable bags (they were 25% off this week), but seeing them in person changed my mind. The bags are tiny (you'd need fifteen of them) and their branding is ugly. (I love the grocery store and their prices, but it's clear they don't spend their money on brand identity. Plus, I wouldn't feel comfortable carrying around a Sunflower Market bag in Smith's.)

Alas, I found these beautiful, colorful, HUGE Baggu bags for $7 each; what a bargain! They've been featured in dozens of magazines, and every review only has exceptional praises. They are large, strong, and hold 3 grocery bags/25 lbs in each one (14 x 23 x 5). The best part? They fit right into your purse! They fold up (or squish, if you're lazy like me) into a neat little bag you can simply throw in your purse. Another benefit is that these will be perfect for the beach/pool, carrying around toys for little kids, a picnic, etc. They're pretty versatile. Anyone else care to go green? Here they are on Amazon.com with free shipping.

♥ Using one baggu for one year replaces 300 to 700 plastic bags.
For nice little facts about the Baggu, click here.



>>EDIT: I also found these beauties at flip & tumble. They are the same price, and hold the same amount--25lbs, but are smaller (12 x 14 x 5). These roll up into little balls (see below).

oh, etsy.

Aren't these postcards from Etsy seller Alice just lovely? I'd like to get a set and frame them on my wall, instead of mailing them. If I had a set like these in my hands, I wouldn't be able to part with them. Check them out here.


>>EDIT: I'd LOVE to get my hands on a print of hers someday! Look at these gorgeous chairs, and beautiful flowers! ($25 for an 8x12, but perhaps she'd go a tad bit larger than that?)





images via alicebgardens.

{failure} + {success}

Yesterday's dinner was a complete disaster to say the least.

Okay, the entire dinner wasn't bad. We had a break-the-fast dinner party with two other couples at someone's house in the ward. Dinner was delicious; I even ate venison!

Tyler and I thought we'd bring some homemade bread, along with lemon bars. Luckily the lemon bars turned out to be a big hit. The bread literally exploded in the breadmaker. I don't know how it happened. For years growing up we made bread every Sunday, and I've never had an experience this bad. Tyler and I took our one-hour-long Sunday nap, and woke up to the smell of really rancid-burnt-something. It was one of the most disgusting smells that happened to completely consume our house. Oust (room spray) + three candles later, we still can't completely get rid of it. And on top of that and all my hysterical crying, Jason is showing the house to possible buyers this afternoon. Hopefully Tyler will be home and will explain that the house doesn't normally reek that bad.

I posted some pictures below so you can get the full effect, minus the smell. Actually, these pictures don't even come near to the full effect. You're lucky you didn't have to smell it all night. Hopefully my breadmaker still works okay. A special thanks to Tyler for spending so much time in the kitchen with that icky smell, trying to clean out the pan and breadmaker! He should have been featured on Dirty Jobs!!

Here is the pan as I found it, with the bread sunk in, partially-cooked, and spilling into the oven:

Here is the bread I tried to salvage from the pan, but we obviously couldn't take it to dinner with us! I sure wasn't claiming that! We ended up throwing it all away; it was only partially cooked.

Here is the bread pan in the sink. You can see how bad it spilled over.

On a better note, I'd like to share with you a cooking SUCCESS I had today.

Look at my delicious salad! YUM.
It's really refreshing for summertime.

INGREDIENTS:
Costco Spring Green Mix ($3.99 for what seems like a never-ending tub of leafy greens)
Reduced-fat Feta Cheese
Fresh Strawberries (we bought that huge thing at Costco, and they are some of the yummiest, juiciest strawberries I've ever had!)
Fresh Blueberries
Walnuts
Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing (I happened to find this naturally fat-free, organic dressing at Smith's. It was like $2.50 or cheaper.)

For a variation, replace the strawberries with chopped up Fuji or Gala apples. I also perfected a homemade dressing that complements the apple really well:
1 part olive oil
1 part apple cider vinegar
a healthy squeeze of honey

Enjoy!!

{ new york city }

images via walk in new york

Does anyone have a Polaroid camera I can borrow?!




That's right, folks...Tyler and I are going to NEW YORK CITY in August!

Strawberry Fields, Central Park, hot dogs, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge...oh, NYC will be wonderful.

I'm so excited that we'll get to go on a trip this summer that isn't just to visit family. (No offense; you know I love you guys!) It'll be nice to explore the big city all by ourselves, as the last time I went as a senior in high school it was pretty restricted. {Our schedule was pretty much traveling for two of the four days, and though we played in Central Park and at Carnegie Hall (!!!), we didn't get much sight-seeing in.} I hope every year, or at least every two years, we can get a family trip in. They don't all have to be to big cities and exotic places, but my goal before I die is to see the world with the people I love the most.

Won't it be glorious? We've already made plane reservations, and we're staying right in down-town Manhattan at a quaint little hotel called The Da Vinci. {Perfect for an artist, no?} We also bought tickets to see Wicked, and the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island. We'll eat giant pepperoni pizza, walk the Brooklyn Bridge, go to the museum of modern art, and ride the subways. We'll see ground zero up close and personal, ride the toys-r-us giant indoor ferris wheel, and play game at FAO Schwarz. I'm excited to take and post pictures; I wish I had a nice SLR, but my camera will do. It doesn't take bad pictures most of the time. :)

It's strange how much I gravitate towards big cities. I love traveling to them. There's so much to do there, and so many little hidden treasures in such a small space. It's like a game for me, finding little glimpses of happiness and serenity here and there amongst such a flustered, busy population. I can't wait to pick up little trinkets and brightly-colored things to go in our house, one of which HAS to be an I ♥ NYC shirt. How did I not grab one the last time I went?!

Anyway, I'm excited for our trip. Thanks for listening.

>> star trek

My family had extreme female dominance growing up. With four girls plus mom, dad and my brother were severely outnumbered. Thus, movies like Star Trek never made it to our house. I don't even think I knew what it was until high school, and even then I thought it was weird that anyone would ever get into it.

However, Tyler and I have heard fabulous reviews about the new Star Trek movie, and decided (because we had a free movie ticket) to go check it out on Friday night. Everything I have to say about that movie is wonderful! Even the website is really cool.

MY REVIEW: It was action-packed, with a little bit of humor and romance in all the right places! It wasn't really even that nerdy, and the characters were all very likeable. I really enjoyed it, and would definitely see it again. The graphics were good, and I loved the music. I actually sat there wishing we could have played something like that in the Vista Band years ago! (by the way, who knew they recently got back from a trip to Great Britain?! wow.) Overall, I'd recommend it. I think Tyler and I will go see it again when it hits the Dollar Theater in the fall.

Project Natal

{No, the title does not suggest that I am pregnant.}

Despite the strange name, Project Natal is a creepy attempt to capture reality in the presence of your own home. It's a bit too interactive for me....experience life OUTSIDE your tv!



via xbox


aaaaaand...kendle tagged me. i won't tag anyone because i can't say i even have eight blogger friends.

[8 favorite tv shows]
1. the office
2. parks & recreation
3. 24
4. king of queens (reruns on the cw)
5. the bachelor(ette)
6. iron chef
7. 30-minute meals with rachael ray
8. any design show on hgtv


[8 things i did yesterday]
1. stayed home from work on account that i have felt sick to my stomach all week long
2. read the memory keeper's daughter, almost finished!
3. updated the blog
4. went to smiths for a short grocery run
5. held tyler's hand
6. ate a purple otter pop
7. made mine and tyler's lunches
8. took a long, hot shower

[8 restaurants i love]
1. cafe rio
2. red robin
3. chilis
4. the old spaghetti factory
5. el gallo giro
6. upper crust (vista)
7. mamas & papas (vista)
8. tucanos

[8 things i'm looking forward to]
1. going to NYC with tyler in august
2. my art history class ending
3. starting a family :)
4. going camping on the beach with my family
5. getting a graphic design job
6. starting an etsy store
7. moving to california
8. turning twenty-one (finally)

[8 things on my wish list]
1. cute, mustard-yellow flats
2. a really nice camera
3. infinite time to spend with tyler
4. a graphic design job
5. a renewed interest in my sketchbook
6. long, beautiful hair
7. world peace
8. (lots of) money so we can travel to far, exotic places

Oh how I wish...

{Remember last year while camping at Carlsbad State Beach when the squirrel got stuck in Dad's BBQ grease catcher? I think someone in our family has a video of it; I'd like to track it down!}

Oh how I wish...that I wasn't still sick. I really don't know what keeps hitting me, but ever since Saturday night I haven't slept well and my stomach has hurt again. Luckily, Tyler coaxed me into taking some Pepto Bismol last night after dinner, and needless to say I was feeling much better. Thank goodness for modern medicine. {I actually liked the first spoonful so much that I asked for a second, which I almost spit out it was so bad. Don't be fooled by its relatively cool bubblegum flavor; the second wind doesn't taste a thing like bubblegum.}


Something I found today on decor8blog.com, originally from http://simonehowell.blogspot.com/. Check out this lovely bench cover:



Isn't it gorgeous? She really does have an eye for color and mixing patterns. I'd LOVE to have an arrangement of bright, festive colors in our home, but I'm terrified it will look more like a circus than anything coherent.