Utah

My trip out to Utah was so wonderful. 

My mother and sister got onto the same flight as mine (I had a promo code and got round trip tickets for $14, thank you JetBlue!!), so we left on Wednesday, 10/10. We landed at about 5 or so. My dad was able to pick us up from the airport since he had driven up early to help with the wedding prep. From there we grabbed dinner at Olive Garden and headed to my nephew's varsity football game. Then it was off to visit old family friends, where I stayed the night. 

On Thursday was my oldest nephew's wedding. It was beautiful and wonderful. 

Walking out

I totally kept my cool, until seeing Rachel's embrace with her father. It was so touching. 

Beautiful Bride

Candid happiness

They had the exchanging of rings right before the reception for all of the family to see. 

Sadly, my phone died after this photo so that's it from the wedding. The reception took place at Noah's in Utah. Which is a beautiful venue. 

On Friday, we met up with my sister's family (minus the newly weds, of coarse ;-p) to head up to the mall!

First we stopped at Scheel's, which is a huge sporting goods store (Imagine 3 Cabala's in 1) then headed off to the new mall City Creek. 

City Creek is a mall that they built around the Creek across the street from the temple. Seriously, like the most beautiful mall I've ever seen.

After the mall, we headed back into Utah County, where I had a buddy Paul pick me up. From there we met up with our friends Jamie and Elric and went to dinner. 

Then we met up with Tui, my boyfriend's sister in law to head back to their house. Her and Steve were having a little get together so we had a good time and I stayed with them the night. 

The next morning we met up with her mother and her daughter Spencer. It was soo good to see little Spencer. She's getting so big, and is absolutely just to cute!

After spending the earlier part of the day and afternoon with Tui while Steve was at work, I got picked up and headed up to Park City to visit my dear friend Ariel. 

We had a blast checking out the Park City night life scene.

The next morning we went to brunch at one of the restaurants she works at, Riverhorse. It was one of the most beautiful restaurants I've ever been to, and their food was fabulous. 

I didn't take a picture of my food (by the time I thought about photos I was about half way into my meal) but I ordered a duck eggs benedict. It was amazing. 

Finished the brunch with a Creme Brulee, and we were set!

Such a wonderful trip, but I am definitely glad to be home, especially in my own bed. A different bed every night can take a lot outta you.

:-)

~*Erin*~

Vacation

I want to apologize, there will be no post this week. I leave tomorrow to go to Utah for my Nephew's wedding. I am so excited to have a few days away, though I will miss my boyfriend dearly. 

I'll be back next week!

Have a good one!!

~*Erin*~

Entry Way

You may remember a while back that at the garage sale I purchase an entry way piece that I was really excited about.

Well this weekend we finally hung it!

I apologize I didn't get any pictures of it going up, I give my boyfriend mad props, he hung it while I was out shopping with my girlfriend (mind you we had decided he was going to), but I was very excited that he actually followed through!

A few weeks ago, when we went to home depot to buy our patio plant  we also picked up a few items to help us hang this piece. 

The first thing we purchased was the actual hanging kit. Since it's a little heavier, we needed a heavy duty hanging kit, which we found at Home Depot for about $8. It hangs up to 100lbs. 

And then we bought hooks to go under it. 

I was bummed that they didn't have any silver hooks that worked, but settled on a gold set with the intention that when we paint this piece (decide on a color, I have a few ideas) we'll paint the hooks as well. 

So when I came home from Ikea, this is what I found:

Isn't it wonderful?

I'm in love. I can't wait to start painting it, but first we need to set all of our colors. I'm set on doing greys, teals, and yellows throughout the house, with pops of red in the kitchen, but we'll figure it out as time progresses. 

Also, for the patio, I bought a new fun thing! But the walls ended up being concrete, so we'll have to buy better tools to hang everything. Hopefully we can get this taken care of this weekend. :-D

~*Erin*~

Guest Post- The Bed

So my past weekend ended up being a little more busy than I had originally intended. I had to take the girls to the vet, run errands, had shopping and lunch with my grandmother, desperately needed to grocery shop, and just ended up a little more broke than I had thought, which pushed back my projects a little farther. :-(

I have been reassured though that this weekend we will definitely be getting those things done. And I'm doing some shopping for decor, so I'm very excited!

Thankfully my Aunt is on top of her projects. 

Here's her story:

So we were at this HUGE garage sale, I am sure you saw Erin's pictures of it, and we scored on a great twin size bed for my soon to be teen-age daughter.  I live in a fairly small condo, and was excited because this had drawers underneath.  The bed was only $20 and I just knew my husband could make it look great.  He started by removing the two sets of drawers on the sides, they were too broken to re-use.

 We have had several projects where we re-used furniture who had drawers that were broken and have found it is pretty basic to turn them into shelves and cubbies.  So, we framed out the empty drawer spaces with plywood and used wood glue and clamps along with nails to set it in place. 

 You do not have to use expensive plywood which can run upwards of $40 a sheet, you can use a lesser grade, this sheet was $8.  Here is a view from the top once the box was completed. 

You want to use wood putty to get a very nice corner where the two pieces meet.

 After that, lightly skim all the plywood in putty, this will make up for the lesser quality plywood when it comes time to sand and paint.  Also make sure you use wood putty to completely fill all the joints so you get a nice smooth finish.  Then sand, sand, sand......and when you think you are done, sand again.  

The bed then took two coats of Kilz Primer before the final white coat was applied.  

We painted the inside of the new cubbies purple to match her room.  Disaster struck when we finally went to move the bed into her room....it was too big to make the turn from the hallway!  My husband actually sawed it right in half and then bracketed it back into one piece.  So excuse the putty in the final picture - it still needs a touch of sanding and a little touch-up paint!

Didn't that turn out great!?!?

I'm very looking forward to getting some of my own project done this weekend! :-)

~*Erin*~

Patio

So the patio set we wanted to get was sold out. :-(

BUT we got the plant we've been looking at and are super stoked about it!!

Unfortunately we didn't have the right tools to hang it, so we'll need to make another trip to Home Depot. 

Definitely will be happening this weekend, as well as another project I've been wanting to get done. So expect a couple of really fun posts next week!

As for now though, let me show off the plant and where it's being hung:

Isn't it pretty?? We love it!!

And it's being hung onto that wall right there. It's perfect size and will add so much life to our patio. 

Hopefully this weekend we can order or find another patio set that we like. I was super bummed the one at Home Depot was out. 

~*Erin*~

Inspiration- Patio

I couldn't have wished for a better birthday weekend. It was absolutely perfect! I was surrounded with good friends and family and even got my hair chopped! I love it!! 

Today's inspiration is the patio. You may ask why? Well because for my birthday, I got some gift cards and money and what do I want to do first with all of that? 

FINALLY Decorate my Patio!! :-D

We're going shopping tonight, I'm beyond excited. 

I am so excited! Expect an update of how it all went on Wednesday. 

~*Erin*~

Sorry!!

Hey Everyone, I wanted to give you a quick apology, I haven't disappeared, It's just a weird week. I have my birthday festivities coming up this weekend, so please, be patient and I'll have some awesome posts for you next week! :-D

A good friend of mine just moved into my complex and has already started on some fun things, so expect a quest post or spotlighted post from her too. :-)

Hope you all have a wonderful week and weekend! I'll make sure to post something Monday. 

Inspiration: Kitchen

I apologize for no post on Monday, due to the holiday (and dying home computer), I was a little out of pocket. 

How was everyone's long weekend? 

Mine was nice, not necessarily as relaxing as I would have preferred, but still nice. We saw friends and family, and even helped some of our friends move into our same complex. It's going to be a fun year!

I apologize for another inspiration post, we've had some financial set backs that are prolonging our actual decoration and projects, but a certain somebody's birthday is next Saturday (I'll give you a hint, It's ME!) and we'll be combining our House Warming with my Birthday Party! So please expect some awesome posts coming up in the near future!

For today though, I would like to show you some idea's I have for the kitchen and dining:

For menu's of coarse. :-)

Man, I can't wait for my birthday/house warming!

~*Erin*~

The Ones Who Live There

So, I realized that I have been having so much fun posting things I want to do to my house, I haven't really gone into the people who habitat it. So, let me take the time and introduce you to us:

Boyfriend and I had an unconvential start to our relationship, but we've helped each other grow and have stuck together through thick and thin. We have been with each other for 5 1/2 years, and really feel that we are just tapping the best times of our relationship.

When we met, we both lived in Utah. I was there for school, and he had just moved back from Hawaii. Due to some living complications, we ended up moving in with each other pretty quickly with some of our friends.

One of our roommates was a dog breeder, and we absolutely loved the mom, Honey. She was a honey brown colored Red Nose Pitbull. The dog she mated with was a blonde huge puppy like American Pitbull Titan.

One of the puppies had been owned by a few different family members and friends.

Aphrodite is one of the most caring, loving dogs we had ever met and we fell in love with her immediately, even before she was ours. We ended up pet sitting her often, and when her owner couldn't keep her anymore, we immediately took her in and gave her a permanent home. 

She is truly the goddess of love. Her favorite things in the world are cuddling and fetch. 

Before we had thought that we could have Dittie as our own, we had put a payment on a new puppy from the batch that Honey was going to have. So came along Spade.

When Spade was just a little puppy (like 1st picture status) we moved to California, aka, my home.

When we were in our first apartment out here, we, the obvious animal lovers we are, decided we needed a Kitten. So when our neighbors cat got pregnant and they were giving away kittens, we picked out Hendrix when he was only 2 hours old. He was such a cutie, and quickly was adopted by the girls as "their pet". Seriously, he thinks he's part dog. LOL!

It has been a wonderful journey, and boyfriend and I couldn't be happier with where we've ended up. We're excited that a new part of our journey together is just beginning too. 

Boyfriend has been offered a position in his company as an Jr. Engineer, and will be going back to school to for his engineering degree to continue to move up. 

As for me, I currently work as a Property Manager at a Real Estate Company. I plan on saving up to retake my test to get my Real Estate License, but that is to help my finances while I'm in school. I just started school again, after like 5 years or so. I'm going to pursue a passion that I've had since I was a child and have decided to study Ethology, which is the branch of Zoology that studies Animal Behavior. I've wanted to work with wild animals since I was a child, but kind of lost track of my dreams. I'm excited to be continuing with them. 

As you can see, we've approached very exciting times in our lives, and I'm excited to be announcing accomplishments that we have, apart from our new awesome place, that we can finally call home. 

~*Erin*~