beautiful-ness

Hello beautiful new car,

I am sorry I haven't named you yet, but I assure you I am working hard to find the perfect name. I am so happy you are in my life, you have no idea what it feels like to finally be able to depend on the reliability you provide. I love how pretty your inside is, and how you turn when I tell you to. I love how fast you go with little effort. I love the little gauge on the dashboard that tells how efficient your MPGs are based on my driving. I love how comfortable your seats are and your "new car" smell. I basically love everything about you. I swear to keep you clean on the outside and the inside. I swear to never let your bottom scrape on that awful concrete, and never park by shopping carts. I swear I will never make your transmission work too hard. I swear I will always keep you fed and only park next to cars that look friendly and won't hurt you with their doors.

Thank you beautiful car, I promise to find you a name soon.

Sincerely,
Your new driver

B-Bugs B-day!

Ohhh Bree Lynn. 

When did you grow up?

We have had so much (yet so little) time together.

Will you ever remember when Aunt KK lived at your house?

I sure will... the good at the bad.

You taught me more about patience than anything (or one) else has

 Do you remember our picnics in the back yard?

Do you remember going for walks in the wagon?

How many "shows" did we watch together?

Do you remember dancing to "Once Upon a Dream"?

What about playing ring around the rosies countless times?

I hope you do remember these things, because I will never forget them.

Happy Birthday big girl, I miss you in SLC!!

Let's play soon.

crafty crafty

So a few weeks ago my cousin, Kimmi, and I decided we needed to play. We had planned on this past Saturday, so when it rolled around we had both forgotten to think of ideas. Finally we decided to get dinner, head to my apartment and (thanks to Pinterest) Kimmi had an idea for making headbands out of old t-shirt. I am always game for a good crafting time, so we got to work. Here are a few of my finished products:

 

 

I made a few of these in different colors, but I am kind of in love with the green one.

Thick black with a green braid and a black and grey flower.

Purple with coppery/purple and ivory flower and 2 green leaves.

Overall, I am quite happy with the way they turned out and it was nice to have a reason to cut up my tank tops that shrunk after the first wash.

On another note, thanks to a facebook friend I found out what District I am in....

Apparently I am a fisher.

And lastly, here is a sneaky peek of my longer ongoing project.

Who's excited??

bad blogger! bad bad blogger!!

I am a bad blogger. I have no excuse, but I will tell you my reasoning. Ian and I have done very blog-able things in the last week and a half but I am HORRIBLE at taking pictures.  For example, as a surprise date last WEDNESDAY (like 10/12, not 10/19) to Thriller by Odyssey Dance Company. Neither of us had ever seen it, so I bought the "cheap" tickets so I wouldn't feel disappointed if we hated it. WE LOVED IT!! It was so SO good! We were amazed at what we had been missing for the last 15 years, so needless to say, next year we will be going again. Here are our tickets to prove it :)

We also had a mini vay-cay to Park City this past weekend. We did one of those name your own price things on Priceline and ended up with a 3.5 star hotel for $45 a night.... not awful. Priceline took my bid the first time I tried which kinda upset me because now I wonder if they would have taken $35... so typical. It was Ian's Fall Break and he REALLY wanted to go out of town, but I couldn't miss any more work so we ended up there. It was actually really fun. We had kind of a not so great experience on our last trip so this mini one gave us hope that we CAN still have a good time on vacation. Ian has a serious obsession with trains (I think its so cute!!), so we bought tickets for the Heber Valley Railroad. We read the reviews before we went and it had a grand total of 1.5 stars. Kinda sad. We were really worried, but decided we would make the best of it. We enjoyed the trip quite a bit. The train was rickety, old, dirty, we could see the ground through rusted away spots in places, and I'm pretty sure there was a hornets nest somewhere, but it was a good time to just sit and talk. We paid extra for the "gourmet sack lunch" that was actually REALLY good. It was the best part of the ride for sure!! The sandwiches were on Rosemary focaccia bread which was a really nice surprise and the cookie was to die for. It took a grand total of 3 hours and took up a good chunk of our afternoon. After that we went back to the hotel and took a nap (we didn't sleep well the night before). We went to Squatters for dinner and wasn't really impressed. Then we walked main street and just enjoyed the Park City life. On Sunday morning we woke up and I was in charge of breakfast. While Ian was showering I did a little research and found a little restaurant called "The No Worries Cafe" that was supposed to be PHENOMENAL.... and it was!! We ended up at the Olympic park for a few hours and then went to the outlets because Ian needed new jeans. Then we came home and did our laundry. It was such a relaxing weekend that we BOTH needed. Ian has been struggling a lot with school (the crazy took 4 graduate level classes this semester) and work was stressing me out beyond belief (also see my previous post on being sick). The sad part is that I only ended up with ONE picture of this vay-cay so here we are.

So now we are here. Ian is still stressed about school, and I am STILL sick but we are doing well.

Oh here is another picture to prove I am not AWFUL:

I made pumpkin cheesecake muffins this week and here is one. It was delicious in case you are wondering.

Ohhhh.... P.S. I may or may not have gone to the doctor yesterday (finally) and found out I have strep.... and I have since last Monday. No wonder everyone I work with has been taking sick days.

sicky.

I have a problem. I am a workaholic. I always have been, once my generous mother took the family on a Baja Mexico Cruise in March when I was 17. I was mad because it was cold and cruises are supposed to be WARM... and I was missing work so I could bundle up on the deck. I would have rather been at work making money, than on vacation. I took a solid 3 days sick time in March this year because my doctor pretty much told me I HAD to. Actually he told me to take 7 days off... I took 3. I had pneumonia. besides that I don't remember the last sick day I took. Monday was a day I HAD to be at work. I was sick, but I went in anyway and worked for a solid 6 hours then went home. I had a temperature of 101 but I just laid in bed and looked at the clock thinking about what I would be doing at work. This morning, I woke up feeling awful!! My eyes were glued shut... literally, My head was pounding, my throat was burning and I could hardly move. I decided I needed to call in sick. I let my manager know I was taking a sick day, she told me to feel better. Then I just laid in bed... thinking about how bad I felt for calling in sick... so guess where I am... WORK!! I walked in at 11:30 and I have been getting crap from everyone at work since. Ian just told me that I was being selfish by being at work, he said something about how it makes it seem like I think MY job is more important than anyone else's because I don't care if I get anyone sick. What do you think???

P.S. I feel much better now than this morning.

DIY wreath

A few weeks ago I made a Halloween wreath that I had found a tutorial for on Pinterest. I love how it turned out but it was quite pricey.


Items needed:
3 feather boas
a wire wreath frame
super glue
any decorations you want to put in it (I used Halloween colored ball ornaments)

Directions: Start wherever you want on the wire frame (I started on the outside). Try to get to the middle of the feathers (where the rope in the middle runs through) and put the glue there. I found the rope works better because the feathers rip out easily and the rope gives it something to hold on to. Continue gluing circularly around the wire frame adding boa after boa. Keep going until you have reached the fullness you want. Glue in your decorations.

Easy, easy, easy. I suggest trying to find a coupon or wait for a sale on the feather boas because they are typically between $6-$9 each... which adds up when you buy 3. I know this is probably confusing, but I'm not very good at directions.

My place.

A few posts ago I promised pictures of my place. I finally got around to taking the pics... So, I present, "Karin's humble abode":

Right when you walk in you are greeted with my living room. The couch is a sofa sleeper I inherited from my grandma when she moved in with us. I also inherited the end tables. I LOVE my rug!!! I got it from Tuesday Morning and it's something I will never let go of... even though Ian doesn't particularly like my floral taste (but I don't like his geometric taste). Gotta love my pitiful Halloween decorations on my coffee table.



Next up is my favorite room, the kitchen. I don't know why I love this kitchen so much, but I do. Sometimes I just sit at the table, and be creepy. The table was another inherited item from my grandma, and it was the thing I kinda fought for (at lease I would have if anyone else wanted it). I love this table because my grandma and I used to play dice, Mexican Train or just eat breakfast (dry cereal, toast with raspberry or strawberry jam, half a banana and orange juice) at this table. The two side chairs are the original chairs that came with the table and are still the original color. Ian and I took on the project of re-finished both our tables one weekend and that's when I painted mine black. I love it even more now. Eventually I want to get new chairs because I really don't want to keep gluing these ones like I do now. The rugs are, again, Tuesday Morning purchases and the one under the table was my housewarming gift from my amazing mother. Isn't she fabulous?? Excuse the washer and dryer... I was doing laundry when I took these pics. If you look hard enough you can see more pitiful attempts at Halloween decorations on my stove. I just noticed I didn't get my favorite part of the kitchen... I found a really good deal on picture that is hanging above my sink. It brings all the colors in and I love LOVE it because you see when you first walk to the apartment.

This is the hall. I am standing in the guest/office/sewing /storage room. To the right is the bathroom, to the left is my bedroom. At the end of the hall is a mirror I also got from my mom. To left of that is the front room and the right is the kitchen. The rug will be the death of me. I love it but it slides EVERYWHERE!! I have the rug grip thing under it and everything, but it still slides around every time I walk on it. Ugh. The coat closet in the middle of the hall terrifies me because I found a tarantula making his home in there (okay I might be exaggerating). I FREAKED out and cried and called everyone I knew but I ended up having to kill it myself. It was horrifying... and I had to give myself the "I'm bigger than him" pep talk a few times before I succeeded.

The bathroom. Not much to say.... I got the shower curtain and the matching towels/toothbrush holder/soap dispenser at Big Lots so that's cool I guess. The faucet leaks. Everything has been re-modeled but the faucets are still quite old so it reminds me of how old the building is.


My bedroom. I LOVE my headboard (I know you can't see the detail, sorry). I bought it off KSL over a year ago. It was already that cute mossy color which I love. It has a hand carved floral design in the top that I love. The only downside to the bed is that it is REALLY squeaky, and I toss and turn in my sleep so I feel bad for the neighbors. The rug is from Home Fabrics in Midvale. I like it, but its not my favorite rug in the house and that picture is another thing from my grandma that I LOVE. I remember it hanging over her bed for YEARS!

So, there you have it! My new place!!! Its small and simple, but I love it. I also LOVE visitors so if anyone wants to come play with me I would love it :)