6 Months of Marital Bliss

Six months of loving, teasing, laughing, forgiving, learning, growing, working and playing. We are happy and in love :)

Oh ya, about Sam and me...

So here is an update on what Sam and I have been up to the past week.

PART 1

Highlight #1

We beat Donkey Kong 2 together. Yes, 102%.

Highlight #2

We went fishing with David & Judy (dad & mom) on Wednesday. We have a blast, each catching a few fish. David out-fished us all, but what is is new. I cannot wait to cook up some delicious Rainbow Trout for dinner this week :)

Highlight #3

We attended Sam's best friends birthday party this past Friday. The theme was childhood regrets (Rich's childhood regrets). If you know Rich at all, it was truly fantastic of a theme. We played two games (both with back stories from Rich's childhood, and both hilarious). A balloon game (tie a balloon around your ankle with a string, and try to be the last man standing) and 4 square! I actually was the second to last to keep my balloon, and had a great time playing 4 square. Sam and I were the last two to face off in four square during the tournament. Sam won. All in all a very good time with good people.

PART 2

Last night Sam and I had a fantastic date night. Sam came up with the idea to go geocaching. I had never gone before so I was very excited! He picked two for us and got the coordinates ready. Both were located in Springville, because I wanted to end our date at the Cracker Barrel Country Store.

Sam had this great idea that we should rent the new Sherlock Holmes movie to tie in our geocaching adventure (searching for a hidden box? Sherlock Holmes detective? Its a stretch we know) Anyway, we looked up which Redbox machines still had DVDs available for rent. There were only 2 stores left in the area. Sam was positive we wouldn't get a copy. I was determined we would. We had a good time running out of our car, cutting off other customers to check the Redbox machine. Location #1 was out, so we hurried off to the second one. There was a girl, and a dad and his son in front of us. I knew our chances were slim. The girl rented Alvin and the Chipmonks Chipwrecked! What luck! And the father son got 2 other movies. This was it, I stepped up and to my luck Sherlock Holmes was available. I slyly give Sam the thumbs up, mission accomplished (or was it?! More to come later). We celebrated in the car on our way to dinner at the Springville Maglebys.

Sam was skeptical to eat at Magleby's because he yet has been impressed with any of the other locations in the area. He said this time was better (the restaurant really is pretty inside) and our food was great... but our waitress was a little out there. She was strange to say the least. Before leaving we each enjoyed a small piece of their award winning cake with a cold glass of milk (surprise surprise) and then we were off to go geocaching. Our first location was the first Presbyterian church in Utah County, and the second was some random patch of land by sheep haha.

In front on the church.

The official log we signed our names in

Location #2, the sheep weren't worth photographing. Sorry sheep.

The sun was just setting and the temperature was finally perfect. Not so dang hot (its been in the high 90's this week). We took off for our last adventure before watching Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows, the Cracker Barrel country store! I grew up taking family vacations to Georgia, driving south from Michigan. A found memory was always stopping at the Cracker Barrel on our way. I absolutely felt like a kid walking in the store again. Sam was a good sport and we had a fun time looking at all the fun gifts and treats. Finally it was time to go home and watch the movie. As we popped it in the DVD player we wondered why all of the previews were so old... and then the movie started. We both knew it right away, I had rented the first Sherlock Holmes! I was so mad at myself and at the Redbox because I felt so deceived. Alas we ended the night, not watching the movie but I did get two free codes from Redbox by telling their customer service what happened. All in all a great night :) I love my Sam.

My Pottery Barn :)

So here is my newest home project, finishing our second bedroom on a budget! This is the only room in the house where I really infused my love for all things vintage/romantic. I am pleased with how it all came together, especially since I mostly used decor that I had previous to getting married, or made the decor for $5 or less!

So here is what I put together:

This was another $5 project. I bought the scrap wood from Lowes for $.25! The picture doesn't show at all put the letters have a rustic feel because I sand papered them to show the black paint I first covered them with. Also, I wrapped the whole project all in a dotted lace to soften the rustic look. Surprisingly Sam loved it! I just like it.

Our large desk in our second bedroom.

Lace, twine, & rustic wood. The frame in the back was actually made of old barn wood. I picked it up last year in Fairview, UT.

I wrapped old votive candle holders with lace I already had.

So the wooden love project almost was a disaster. Nothing was working to my advantage... the wood looked horrible painted (its not real wood), I basically broke my can of white spray paint which was spattering all over my wood, leaving horrible paint spray marks and covering my hands. I learned quickly how difficult removing spray paint is from skin. So while the painted letters and wood were drying I spent a good 30 minutes rubbing the spray paint off with olive oil! So frustrating!

I'm also posing a really easy but yummy crock pot recipe I made the other night. I usually like to try new recipes, never know how they will really turn out. Well Sam asked me if he could invite his best friend Rich over for dinner after they were done playing ultimate frisbee together on Tuesday. I had a moment of panic when I realized, 'no one knows if dinner will be good or not!' Well let me tell you, it passed with flying colors! Both Sam and Rich loved it. So here is the recipe if you want to try an easy, unique chicken dish!

Spicy Peanut Chicken (My altered recipe, from a crock pot message board, don't remember where from! But the message board said this is was originally taken from a South African dish!)

4 skinless breasts
1 large onion, chopped (I didn't have one, so didn't even do this! But I'm sure it would be good)
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomoatoes with green chilies, undrained (I used texmex style diced tomatoes)
2 Tablespoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

Mix onion, diced and crushed tomatoes, honey, cumin and cinnamon in 6qt slow cooker. Place chicken in slow cooker (I cut mine in chunks). Spoon tomato mixture over chicken.

Cover and cook on low heat setting 7 to 8 hours or until juice of chicken is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut. (I have an insane crock pot and it was done in 6 hours)

Stir in peanut butter until melted and well blended. Serve chicken and sauce over couscous or rice. Serves 4

So I originally cut this recipe in half for just Sam and I. When I knew Rich was coming over, I used a wooden spoon to shred the chicken for it to go further. The chicken was so tender it fell apart easily just using the spoon! Eating it this way was delicious! Rich's quote for the evening, 'we are eating like king's tonight!' I recommend you give it a try!

I'm back!

 So, I'm a horrible blogger and haven't posted any of the fun happenings for the past few months. But I'm trying again. This post will be a mini catch up session, highlighting fun projects I've done.So starting from the most recent to the oldest, here we go!

PROJECT #1
This project I just finished last night. I've been working on it for months (sadly, I was highly unmotivated by how it was looking until yesterday when it came together). Sam purchased this huge, very functional desk off of KSL for $15. I overtook it and made it my craft desk :) but I do try to keep it tidy for when Sam wants to use it as well. Anyway, as you'll see, there are three slots not so very big in size.I picked up these small flexible baskets at the ever trustee Dollar Tree (best dollar store there is, three baskets = $3). And a yard of burlap from Hobby Lobby (with my 40% off coupon was under $1.50) I covered the hideous (they were bright yellow) baskets with the burlap using my hot glue gun. This was the hardest and most time consuming part. I didn't bother making a pattern or standardizing the pieces of burlap so it took awhile. Now the fun part. I made stencils from cardstock via my printer. I painstakingly cut out the numbers... and yes I saved the stencil for future 'numbered' projects. Finally using supplies from my craft box, plus black paint from Jo Anns (only $.59) I painted over the stencils. Then, I ate a large bowl of Dreyers Slow Churned S'more ice cream while watching a cheesey movie (One For the Money) and waited for them to dry. I am now obsessed with how they turned out!!! Can you believe, $5 for these cuties! As of now they are storing scraps of material for future sewing projects. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

These baskets cost me $5 to make!

This is in our second bedroom btw. I'll post more pictures once its done. It's the only room in the house that I am attempting to create a 'Pottery Barn' feel. Please do not look at the display of pictures on top of the shelf. They are just there waiting for a permanent home in the room. And yes, those little jars are from Kelly's wedding favors. Super cute. I loved them so much I took my parent's home too.




PROJECT #2

My good friend Rachel is pregnant with their first baby! I'm SO SO happy for her and her husband Brandon. Rachel travels for work, and being the fantastic friend that she is, twice now and scheduled business in Utah. I love it. She came out last August. It was so special, because she was my first and only friend to meet Sam before we came out for Thanksgiving to meet everyone. I can't tell you how much it means to have one of your closets friends be able to meet and give their opinion of the guy you're with. We even went to one of Sam's Ultimate Frisbee games. They won, good thing... for Rachel anyway. She may not have been so approving if she'd seen him lose lol. Anyway, I won't be able to attend her baby shower in Michigan, but I knew I wanted to make her a baby gift for when she visited. Here is Utah, every single mom has a cute baby tent on their car seat. I have no idea if they are as common in MI, so of course, I need to send one that way. Rachel isn't finding out the sex of the baby, so that was tricky picking out fabric that was cute, but baby neutral. I think I nailed it, plus it screamed 'Rachel' to me :) So here it is!

This bad boy wasn't so easy either. I'm just starting to get sewing again, and I messed with the settings on the tension on the machine. Oops, so it took me a little bit to get going. I made this on a day Sam was at work, because of course I over took almost every room in the house with fabric, ironing boards, pins and the sewing machine. Totally worth if though. I just loved how it turned out. So, where is this picture taken you ask? Yes the day I finished I HAD to know that it fit on a car seat, LOL so I took it into the Target near our house and fashioned in on every car seat they carried to make sure it worked universally haha. Here is a shot of it flipped up, if you wanted to look at baby. Too cute right?



PROJECT #3

Project number three were gifts for Kelly. I'm bummed because I forgot to take pictures of the wedding gifts I made her. But they are very similar to decor I've made for our home (see an old post) I made her a large wreath with the letter P and a silhouette picture of Michigan, with the heart over Plymouth with Kelly & Steve's names and wedding date. It means so much to me that Kelly called to tell me on their way to Hawaii how much she loved them. That's all I could ask for :) and what I forgot to tell her, but makes carrying that huge wreath throughout two airports as carry on totally worth it! Maybe Kelly will take pictures of them for me and I can update the blog :)

The other gifts I made Kelly were for her bridal shower. Thanks to Lee for encouraging me to take pictures :) I bedazzled a pair of white shorts with the saying 'I DO' and a diamond ring. Kelly is such a sweetheart and wore the shorts at the salons while getting her hair and make up done. I also made her a bridal tote, my actually first sewing project since getting the machine out here in Utah. I sewed ribbon and lace matching her bridal colors and ironed on this beautiful 'BRIDE' lettering. The bag curled in the wash and no amount of ironing would tame it. But she carried around some essentials the morning of the wedding in the bag as well. Gotta love Kelly and how thoughtful and caring she is. Here is the picture:

Stay tuned for my next post :) Tonight we're going to our sweet niece Hailey's dance recital, but I have tomorrow night off and more ideas for projects for that second room!