Jewelry Makin'

I picked up a new hobby this summer while I was in Memphis. I had to! I was getting pretty bored and boredom and I don't do well together.

Since it was far too hot and sticky to spend time outdoors, I was limited in hobby choices. Also, Devin and I drove to Memphis with full cars and I knew we would be returning to Utah with full cars, so I knew my new hobby needed to be compact.

So, what's a bored girl with limited space supposed to do? The answer: make jewelry.

I started off by making basic bracelets I had found on Pinterest. They turned out to be glorified macrame bracelets, only one step above what someone would make as a 10 year old at summer camp. Not wear worthy. I will not post pictures simply because it's not worth taking the time to take pictures of them.

Then, I started making bracelets using a technique called bead stitching. They are beautiful and I wear them all of the time.

After making a million of those bracelets (yes, I have many, many more than I have pictured), I decided to venture on over to necklaces. I have a necklace that I bought at a boutique in Georgia a couple of years ago that I always get compliments on. I busted it out and took a real hard look at it and realized that I now knew enough about beading and jewelry making that I could in fact make a similar necklace. So, I taught myself how to make these necklaces; A proud moment for a beginner like me.

Yes, I have a ton...sorry, a TON...more than I have pictured above. I literally went through my closet and made a necklace to match all of my shirts!

I have started an Etsy shop to sell them online, but I have not yet finished posting all of the pictures and descriptions of them. So, when my Etsy shop is ready to go, I will add another post with a link to that!

School & Graduation

There was a point when I working full time and going to school full time that I didn't think that I would be able to make it through school. I had no idea what I wanted to do and I changed my major 3 times (Early Childhood Education, Business Management, Accounting). Working so hard towards nothing seemed useless at the time. It wasn't until I took an Intro to Social Work class that I found what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I want to be a social worker.

I was adopted when I was 4 years old, but before that, I spent 3 years in a foster home. Although I was young and it was a long time ago, I do have some memories. I specifically remember three of my social workers and the happiness that I felt when they would come visit my sister and me. I want to be able to bring that kind of joy to other children-children who may not have anyone else to bring them joy. They gave me hope as they promised me a forever family, and I am so grateful for the forever family that they found for me.

My Dad, Sister (Renee),Mom, and Me

My Dad and Me

My Dad in his Doctoral robes. He had to hand out diplomas at a different ceremony across campus at the same time so he handed them out and sprinted across campus in time to see me walk!

My mom and Me

So, I finally found out what I wanted to do, but the problem was that BYU had just barely gotten rid of their undergraduate Social Work program. The next closest thing was Sociology. The plan then became to get my Bachelors in Sociology and then go back to get my Masters in Social Work. As of April, I have finished the first part of that plan.

I loved the Sociology program at BYU. It was the hardest things I have ever done but it's the most rewarding feeling to have completed it. Despite the hard work and stress, I was able to make the most amazing friends. We banded together to get through rough semesters and tough teachers, but they always knew how to make tough things enjoyable.

(Shorty Sandwich-Hannah and I always had to be on the ends)

(Had to show off our new dresses!)

(Maurine and Me)

(Maurine's graduation party)

I had the opportunity to work with my favorite professor and a group of other students on a research project. We researched professional Rugby teams and how teams extract players from other countries to play for their team. We also did another study to look into the racial segration of players within teams (stacking). We had a couple of the star players on the BYU Rugby team on our research team. We got in free to all of the games! I was able to go to San Diego with two other girls from my team to present our paper at a Sociology conference. The whole research experience was so exciting and I am so happy that I was able to get on to the research team. Here is our research team (the students that graduated. There are still three other students who were not at graduation.)

Graduating has got to be one of the best feelings in the world. It's the culminating experience to years and years of hard work, stress, and sacrifice. I know a lot of people decide not to walk, but walking at graduation was one of the most fun things that I did in college! Everyone around you is happy and the joy is intoxicating.

Lining up to walk. It looks like there is no one in the audience, but there were hundreds of people-It's just a huge venue!

Well Put...

Source: hj523uio.com via Karen on Pinterest

One Week

This is the only thing getting me through this last push til graduation! The whole event is a little tainted since Devin left for Memphis on Wednesday and I won't be able to join him until June. It breaks my heart. As much as it stinks, I am excited to go to Mexico (on my Study Abroad) on May 14th. I've got a lot of things that will get through week to week. This week I've got finals and term papers, next week is graduation festivities. I then have to just make it through three week until I'm in Mexico (that will make time fly SO fast). Then two more weeks after that and I can go to Memphis!

My mom has called "dibs" on me for one of those weeks to paint her living room and other small projects. She sure knows how to take my mind off of things!

As a Devin update, he has made it safely to Memphis and moved all of his stuff into the apartment or should I say three story town home with an attached garage. It's going to be a good summer (once I can be out there to enjoy it with him). He's already had ten tons of work to do getting the office and inventory ready for work on Monday. UPS had a truck break down so Dev had to go to UPS with a Uhaul all by himself and pick up 10 pallets of equipment. Needless to say, he's tired. I am so proud of him and all of the hard work he is doing and will do this summer. I miss him already.

So there's our little update.

Before & After

I just learned how to make a before and after picture online. The site that I used is closing in April so this little treasure is soon to be gone. Does anyone else know of any online picture editing sites that I can use to make before and after pictures?


This is probably one of my favorite furniture re-dos and here is the link to the original post that I did on the coffee table that I made into a bench.



Here is the link to the original post that I made about my DIY bookshelf. I just can't wait to get into a house so that I have places for all of my re-done furniture!



This is my most recent DIY project. I made this chair for my mom. She bought the chair for $10! It's a sturdy chair with a lot of small details. The original fabric was cute, but it was super dingy and torn in a few places. It definitely needed to be revamped!

Reupholstered Chair

Here's my project from last Saturday. Before and After shots are coming soon as well as a tutorial.



My mom found this solid wood chair at Savers for $10, but when she found it, it had dingy old fabric covering it. She knew how I up-cycled the coffee table into a bench so she bought it for me to make her a new piano teaching chair.

Valentine's Day Banner

Happy Valentine's Day

I made a holiday banner for Halloween and Christmas and thought it only appropriate to decorate for valentine's day too! I made a few extra to give out to friends and family.



Hugs and Kisses

Scrabble Tile Ornaments

Sorry for the onslaught of Christmas posts in February, but better late than never!

I made these Scrabble ornaments and I absolutely LOVE them! They gave my tree a touch of homemade mixed in with all of the store bought ornaments without being overly cheesy. I picked up the tiles at DI but I had to be patient because lots of people scout out the scrabble tiles. I eventually found two sets and I made a set of ornaments for my best friend, Becky, and a set for myself.

Here are some pictures of the ornaments on the tree.

Christmas in February

So it's been exactly 1 month since my last post. I made a Valentine's Day banner and went to upload the pictures when I found all of these pictures on my camera that I never posted about. So, here's a round of catch up for you!



Here is my Christmas Tree. Yes, I did put it up the weekend after Halloween and no, I'm not ashamed. I love leaving the tree on at night and having it light my way when I had to wake up before the sun. I loved falling asleep on the couch and waking up with it still on. The only down side is that after two months, half the lights were burned out. Once Christmas was over, it was ready to be put away.

I made a bunch of Christmas Ornaments out of scrabble tiles. Every time I go to DI, I ALWAYS check for old scrabble boards. They're hard to find because everyone looks for them. I eventually ended up with two sets, so I made ornaments for myself and for my best friend Becky.

M.I.A

I'm always so sad to write the first blog post in months because that usually means that my life has become too insane to take on the simple pleasure of blogging.
That also usually means that my life became so filled with boring stuff that I didn't have much to blog about! That was definitely the case yet again. As some of you may know, I had the semester from h.e.double.hockey. sticks. I had a horrible professor that made my life not so grand! In one of of his classes (I say that because I had TWO classes from him) I wrote over 220 pages of papers. That was just one of his classes and ONE of my 5 classes. Needless to say I have never been so stressed over school and I have also never worked so hard for an A in my life. I have never been more proud of my straight A's-I can say that I definitely deserved it!

This is my last night of freedom before I begin yet another semester at BYU and I couldn't be more excited that it is my LAST! I never thought this day would come but I guess I should save the rejoicing for when the last day of my last semester arrives. This semester is sure to kick my butt with 19 credit hours, two out of town trips with my research team to San Diego and Las Vegas, preparing for my trip to Mexico in May with a group from BYU (to study the sociology of development), and the usual desire to maintain some sort of social life and squeeze some crafts in if I'm lucky. Unfortunately that means that I can't promise a ton more posts for the next couple of months-I will try my best.

So, what am I doing this last night of freedom you might ask? I took Christmas down at my house (always sad and exhausting), I played bunco with my monthly bunco girls and I worked out for an hour and a half! I pretty proud of that last one-I just kept going and worked up quite a stank! I don't own a scale and I know I probably should, but right now I'm just focusing on feeling better about myself and looking better in my clothes. I can't obsess about a number until I feel like I look good again-for me that's just a healthier approach. Once I feel comfortable with the way that I look, then bring on the scale. Only then will I be able to look at the number and say "That's higher than I want it to be, but at least I feel good about myself." I can work on it from there!

Here's to maintaining my stress over school and leading a healthier, happier life in 2012! That's all anyone of us can do...improve in whatever ways possible!

Coffee Table turned Bench

I know I have a lot of posts to still catch up on, but I was so excited to show you my little DIY project that I finished this weekend! I just couldn't wait to post the before and after pictures! I did take pictures along the whole time so that I can post a tutorial, but that will have to be another time...I've got too much homework and not enough time!

Before


I saw this coffee table at DI (thrift store) in all it's palm tree glory for $5! I looked past the mosaic palm trees made out of crushed up orange and green tile and saw this wonderful thing I call "potential." I wanted it so bad but didn't think that it would fit in my car. I knew that I would have to talk Devin into letting me take on another project. Not only that, but I would also have to talk him into going to DI with me because I needed his car (to fit the table into) and I can't drive stick-shift. Somehow I convinced him to come with me to take another look at it and when we got there I think he thought I was crazy. It looked pretty white trash! I promised him that I could make it awesome and I told him worse case scenario, we wasted $5...no biggie either way! We loaded it up and I dismissed all homeowrk assignments and other productive activities that I had planned for this weekend in order to start and finish it! Start to finish it ended up taking about 2 hours (if you don't include the time it took to dry). I'm slightly obsessed with it and it turned out better than I imagined!

Take a look:
After



Total cost: $35
Level of happiness this bench brings me: priceless


So, What do you think!?

August Happenings

My brother Alex married the sweetest girl on August 5, 2011. I came home early from Dallas to attend the wedding and make their wedding cake. Originally, I didn't think that I'd be returning to Dallas after the wedding, so I drove my car home from Dallas for my brother's wedding and planned on going to Colorado right after the wedding to hang out with my sister and nieces. Since my parents were going too, the plan was to drive out with my sister in her car, stay for a week and a half or so, and return to Utah with my parents. Devin would finish up the month of August in Dallas and drive back (he flew in for the day of the wedding and returned to Dallas super early the next day). Well, the plans changed slightly and Devin was strongly considering staying in Dallas until the end of September and take block classes for the Fall Semester. The night before I left Dallas, I had a meltdown because I realized I may not see Devin for close to two months. That was not okay! We found a pretty cheap one way ticket from Colorado to Dallas so that became the new plan. I would drive home for Alex's wedding, drive out to Colorado and hang out for about a week, and then return to Dallas to be with Devin. If Devin stayed the month of September then we would have just bought a one way ticket for me back to Utah so that I could start school, but if he left at the end of August I would be able to drive back with him. Luckily, Devin and I ultimately decided to leave Dallas together at the end of August so that he could take a full semester of classes and we wouldn't have to spend September apart.
So, August for me meant a lot of time in transition! One of the other girls out in Dallas for the summer also had to be back early and she drove her own car to Dallas as well, so at least we were able to caravan. I drove the 20 hour drive back to Utah alone. Then, after my brother's wedding, I drove the 8 (which turned out to be a 10 hours with traffic) drive to Colorado with my sister, flew out to Dallas, and drove the 20 hour drive back to Utah with Devin. Devin was all hopped up on Rockstars the entire time so we were able to make that 20 hour drive in one looooonnng day. He's the trooper though because he did all of the driving! We planned on staying somewhere overnight, but every time we stopped, he had TONS of energy and was ready to push on! He never once felt tired!
Well, we made it back to Utah a few days before school started and now our lives are devoted to studying and doing homework!

Posts to look forward to:

Alex's wedding
The Incline
2 Year Anniversary

Dear Haitham,

We miss you! We can't wait for you and Mizi to come visit! When you come, you guys are required to bring Oscar so he can be reunited with his lover Rush! He also needs to meet his future best friends Tucker and Cricket (my parent's cavaliers)! Also, you need to go down to the pool (at any given time past 10pm) and say hi to Kes for us and give her a big hug! We miss Dallas and we miss you guys!


In case you couldn't tell, they're saying "Please Bring Oscar!"


Rush says "Hi!"


You know you miss seeing that orange shirt everyday!

JFK Museum

This museum was one of the best museums I have ever been to. There are no cameras allowed inside so I guess you'll just have to visit Dallas to get the full effect of what I'm talking about. The museum consisted of an audio tour which made for a pleasant visit. It was very well organized, quiet, and you could stop and start the tour at your own pace. There were videos throughout the tour that had actual footage from JFK's life as wells as footage from the day of his death, funeral procession and also Lee Harvey Oswald's murder. I learned so much about JFK, America, and Dallas from that museum! My dad bought us a book about JFK that's amazing!


The Sixth Floor Museum

This building used to be the Textbook Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK out of the sixth floor window.





The "X" marks the spot where JFK was fatally shot



Downtown Dallas