Another Project!

Another Project! It started with this cute wooden dish that I found at the Salvation Army, it was only 50 cents! I spray painted it antique white and just love it!

Now, I just have to find something to put in it!

So another project ensued. I knew I wanted the dish to go on my dining table, but wasn't sure what to put in it. I was thinking decorative balls, but wasn't really sure about it. 

I then found this big bunch flowers at goodwill for 1 buck....and an idea hit me! I went and bought some styrofoam balls from Michaels and created these little beauties :)

 

I took the flowers and cut them off of the bunch, leaving about 1 cm of stem left attached to the flower petal.

 

Then I stabbed the stem into the foam balls...

 

....made a HUGE MESS....

and all these little cuties!

 

I'll post another picture of them of on the actual table - which is going to get another mini upgrade later today :) Stay tuned!

Exciting Times!

Some most exciting news has finally motivated me to get back into blogging again! Daniel has been chosen to participate in the "Escape from Alcatraz" Triatholon in San Francisco this May!

It's pretty intense! This is the description from their website:

The Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon includes a 1.5 mile swim from Alcatraz Island in the San Francisco Bay. The race continues with an 18 mile bike ride out the Great Highway, through the Golden Gate Park, and concludes with an 8 mile run through the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The finish is at The Marina Green. 

 Daniel began preparing in January, and has kicked his training into high gear now that he is officially in the race. It's very ambitious, and Daniel couldn't be more excited and happy about it. It's a great distraction, light at the end of the tunnel, all that good stuff you need while suffering though grad school :) 

 

Gooooooo Daniel! I know you will do awesome! 

As for myself, I've been working on some exciting projects too, but on a much smaller scale :) I have started to become very interested in creating things. My first project worthy of blog publication was re-doing a small shelfy thing...maybe a spice rack in it's past life. I patched up holes, painted it, backed it with fabric and added a wooden embelishment...and it's lovely! 

Before:

 

After!!!!

Mini Dose of Happiness

Today was busy, long, and not to mention, a monday...ew! I got a lil 'Mini Dose of Happiness' from this video, and wanted to share it! He's super cute and has mad skillz!

This video is also really great. It's just a new clip, but I like it!

Compliment of my life "You look like a little girl"

Some people amaze me!

I walk into BJ's Wholesale with my boss Bro. Durrant. A lady from his ward is there, and he introduces me to her. I politely and properly introduce myself to her, and she replies with "You look like a little girl".

Who says that? Soooo annoying!

What made it worse was that the same situation happened the day before. We were at a Christmas party and my boss introduced me to a fellow, the guy looks at Bro. Durrant in bewilderment and says "YOU HIRED A LAUREL!??" Gez people!

Maybe everyone I meet has turrets syndrome. Maybe I look sooooo young I send people into utter shock, and they loose all sense of tact, politeness, and social skills. Maybe I should start wearing my Grandma costume regularly.

Any Ideas???

Holy Snow!!!

It snowed sooo much last night!! We woke up to the sound of someone shoveling, peeked outside and saw a beautiful winter wonderland! So, I did what every normal person does....I put my down jacket on over my PJ's, slipped on my wool clogs, grabbed an umbrella and went on a walk! Ok maybe it's not that normal :) But I bet anyone else from the south experiencing their first big snow would totally do the same thing!

 

Christmastastic Weekend!

Christmas time is officially here! We kicked off the first weekend of December with 4 fun Christmas events!

New Haven Christmas Tree Lighting!!! We went with the Streeter's and Pope's downtown on Thursday to see the huge Christmas tree lighting on the New Haven Green. The weather was great, and we had lots of fun! Highlights included free cheese, free apple cider, free hot chocolate (x2)...and oh ya, the TREE of course!

Emily, Audrey, and Jeff

Whitney and Rose

The Tree!

We also went out and got ourselves a lil tree over the weekend. We went to a tree farm in Hamden and chopped down the PeRfEcT Christmas tree :) Daniel has declared the tree is now a part of our family.

Broken Arrow Nursery

Here it is!!! Daniel working hard to saw it down.

Here's me pretending to help. I am laughing because I couldn't even move the saw :)

"We" did it!! Daniel was excited to wear his lumber man jacket to the tree farm :)

You can't really tell, but it was lightly snowing while we were out roaming the tree fields. It was pretty neat, very 'Christmas-y'.

Later we went to a Christmas Concert put on by our wonderful Skate Choir. Don't let the lack of pictures fool you...it was amazing!!! Two thumbs up!

At the end of the day we attend the annual PA Christmas party. As we walked out of our apartment we found everything covered in a fresh layer of snow! This is my car! I yelped with excitement to realize it had been snowing!

It was a great end to a wonderful day. Despite the snow, we headed out the the PA party downtown. We enjoyed seeing so many Whitehall PA's, and all of Daniel's classmates. They served us a great dinner, and we enjoyed lots of dancing! LOTS of dancing!

This is a great action shot of our friends Kyle and Makayla. Apparently they are professional swing dancers! They were tearin' up the dance floor!

More dance floor awesomeness came from our finger mustaches! Next to me is the PA director sporting a snazzy stach, and next to Daniel is Kassidy and Lance who are Whitehallers in the 2nd year PA class.

Stach Swap

Feelin' the Love.

Phew!!! So on Saturday we chopped down a tree, went to the concert, and then the PA party. We were enjoying ourselves so much that it wasn't until Sunday morning that I realized we had had such a busy day. We slept through the alarms and woke up at 9:30. Church begins at 9:30.

Still Thankful...

I didn't get to do as many Thankful posts as I wanted, so I'll just wrap up a few really quick :)

- I am so thankful for my family! My Mom, Dad, Larry, Brian, Jessica, Kristian, Colin, My Whatcot, Cardon, Skelly, and Dickman grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. I am also very thankful for the family that I have joined through Daniel. His immediate family, and extended family are a wonderful group of people that I am very glad to know and be apart of.
- Speaking of Daniel....I am so thankful for him and for our marriage. He is the best, and with out getting too gushy or emotional, I just want to say that he is so wonderful and such a great man. I am thankful for his kindness, friendship, love, humor, protection and support.
- I am thankful for the Gospel. It has provided me so much support and pure joy. I love living the gospel and the happiness it brings to my soul.
- I am thankful for my healthy mind and body. A strong mind and body are invaluable to me, and I feel blessed to have both.
- I am thankful to be here in New Haven, and for Daniel to have such a wonderful opportunity to attend Yale. It has been a joyous, and sometimes stressful, journey so far. I sometimes ask myself and Daniel....'Is there anywhere else you'd rather be?'....and the answer is always no.

The list could go on, but these are some really important ones I wanted to mention before I lose all sense of thankfulness as I begin blogging about the festivities of Christmas!!!!! (half jk)