Julie & Julia

My husband is doing his programming homework.  So I watched Julie & Julia.  I love that movie.

If you are familiar with the story line, Julie Powell has decided to take Julia's book and accomplish all of her recipes in exactly 365 days.  It is not an easy task, but she is dedicated, and accomplishes the impossible.

Now, I don't think I could ever commit myself to such a task.  First of all, I could see the pounds coming on quite fast.  (Especially since every recipe tends to feature butter, butter, and more butter!)  Second of all, I don't think my wallet (or Ryan's!) could afford that kind of exquisite cooking day in and day out.  Third of all, I'm not that determined.

But, I do want to become better at cooking.  In fact, I did try something new this week.  I cooked with pork for the first time ever.  I didn't even need to call my mom.  (A simple feat that I am quite proud of!)  It turned out delicious.  I need to become more brave and adventuresome with cooking.  We have had too many meals of soups and sandwiches and spaghetti.  My poor husband. 

So I'm off to become a better cook.  Not quite like Julia Childs, but better, nonetheless!

Bon appétit! :)

I may or may not have added this book onto my wish list after watching Julie & Julia.

I'm a prisoner here.

Saturday Night

Happy Saturday!

Do you ever feel like you've wasted your Saturday? I sure do.  Sure, I was productive at times...but for the most of it?  Pure laziness.

I need a hobby.  A real hobby.  Something I can do at home that will entertain me for hours, if I so choose.  But see, the problem is I get bored easily.  Oh, and frustrated.  I've tried sewing...but I only get frustrated if things go wrong, or it takes too long.  I get bored of drawing.  Or reading.  Or writing.  And the list continues.

The internet is NOT my hobby.  Well, truth be told, that is where I spend my time when I'm bored.  I surf blogs, pinterest, and Facebook. I could probably do it all day long, just wasting my time.  That's the problem...at the end of surfing pages and pages of nothing, I find that I've accomplished just that: nothing.  I feel as if my brain has been sucked out and replaced with fluff.

I need a real hobby.  I also need to spend less time on the internet.  I hate that I have wasted so much time today whether it be on the internet, sleeping, or doing absolutely nothing.  Help?

Pins That Work

Today I am letting you in on my Pinterest undertakings.  On my Clean House, Happy Heart board, I have managed to implement a few pins and to much surprise, have found great success in doing so!  Check it out:

Vanilla Pin

Claim: Put two TBS of vanilla extract in an oven-safe cup/bowl, then place it in the oven at 300 degrees for one hour. Within twenty minutes the whole house smells like Heaven. It's actually a common realtor trick.

Result: My apartment smelled FABULOUS!  It smelled like fresh baked cookies all throughout the apartment.  The down side: The smell quickly faded after it was taken out of the oven.  I would have loved the smell to linger a bit more.

Newspaper Pin

Claim: Ball up Newspaper and stuff into refrigerator when it SMELLS BAD. Change out papers every 2 hours until smell is gone! (A plumber recommended this to us when we returned from vacation to find a basket of rotted spinach!!! IT WORKS and worked after 3 changes - we had already tried everything else!)...wonder if it would work in a microwave where someone burnt the popcorn?

Result:  Worked like a charm after ONE try!  However, I only tried this for the microwave.  You know that nasty smell that builds up in the microwave? Yup.  This solved that problem.  I will forever be using this trick.  I have yet to try it for the fridge though, since we haven't had problems yet, though I imagine it works great.  No down side.

Shower head cleaner

Claim: 1/3 cup baking soda -1 cup white vinegar -1 plastic bag -1 large bag twisty tie Let sit several hours or overnight.

Result: Amazing!! Our shower head was completely blocked and water was coming out of it irregularly. After an overnight treatment of this, it flowed nicely and opened up holes that hadn't been used in a loooong time.  Highly recommended.  No down side.

There you have it!! I tried it, faced success, and now encourage you to do the same!  Don't you just love Pinterest?  I'm addicted.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow!

So, if you don't happen to follow me on Facebook or Instagram, then you do not know that I recently chopped off a good portion of my hair.  Check out the difference:

From this:

To this:

Shaking Things Up

It is time to shake my life up a bit. School is letting out here soon and I need to make some changes in my life.

1. Change jobs

Well, kind of. I am going back to Brick Oven to be a supervisor down in their bakery. I am thankful for the time that I have worked at Walgreen's. I have met wonderful people who have blessed my life even for the short time that I have worked with them. I have also learned to be a couponer! Walgreen's was not a good fit for me, however, I do believe that I was supposed to work there for the time that I did. I do not regret working there. There are a couple of things that I am looking forward to with going back to Brick Oven. I am so glad that I will not have to work on Sundays anymore. I will also have nights off again! I will be making more money. Score. I will get to work with some of my favorite people again. 

2.  Music

I have decided to finally pick a major. About time right? I am going into Music. After much prayer and pondering I have been inspired to pursue music. I do not know what I am going to accomplish after I get a degree in Music but I know that the Lord will help me in whatever I do. I know that I am not the most talented musician but I love music. There is something in my heart that stirs when I pick up my cello or sit down at the piano. I feel joy and love when I play. There are few things in my life that speak to my soul the way that music does. In my journey towards this degree I decided it is time to take lessons again. I am honestly a little frightened at the thought. I have never been very technical and my teachers in the past (whom I have loved) have been very easy on me. It is time to push myself again. It is time to grow and change.

3. Eating Habits

I know what I need to do in order to be healthy. I was doing really well for months until the holidays came. I have had the hardest time starting up again. Why do I let myself get into cycles of patterns of self-destruction? I feel better when I eat good foods and exercise but yet time and time again I do  choose not to do these things. It is time to choose to be healthy. I can do it! I need to just keep going and not get discouraged when I mess up.  

4. Savings

I need to be better at putting money away for the future and saving up for things such as retirement, vacations, children, rainy days, braces (I am determined to get braces one of these days), etc. 

5. Cleaning

It is time to do some deep cleaning in my house.

6. Patience 

I need to be patient with myself and others. I struggle with wanting change to happen immediately. I do not give the ample amount of time that is necessary for change. I need to rely on the Savior's Atonement to work miracles in his own due time. I need to be patient with myself and not beat myself up when I fail. Failing is part of life. It is okay to fail. Really it is. It is okay as long as I get back up and try again. There are important lessons that can be learned from failed attempts at change. 

What things can you change in your life? Are you feeling that gentle stomach-turning nudge inside of you that is telling you that there is something that you need to be changing in your life? Do it. Try it. Even if you fail or have failed before it is okay to keep trying. 

Spider Nightmares

Why does it seem that spiders tend to appear when my husband is NOT around. I mean, seriously?? I like to pretend that I am not afraid of spiders, but the truth is, I'm terrified of them. The bigger they are, the more I cannot kill it.

As we type, I have my eye on this beut:

My husband will probably not come home or another hour or so. Luckily for me, my dear friend Melissa is willing to save the day. She is risking her life, her dignity, and the possibility of her car running out of gas. But she is coming! So I must wait it out. Watching it vet so carefully. There goes my long hoped-for nap.

But seriously...can I tell you about this thing?? It is roughly the of a quarter. It is as black as death, and its too front feelers look like crab claws. If my phone buzzes, or I try to be brave and attempt to approach it to kill it, It stops suddenly, takes a defensive position and waits, just daring me to try a single move, promising with that evil stance that it will fight back and no, it will not be pretty.

Oh please Melissa, please come soon. Something tells me that I am going to be having nightmares about spiders tonight.

The Weekend

Me, on the way to Park City!

Ah.  Finally.  The weekend.  But not ONLYthe weekend, the end of the work week.  For now.  Hallelujah.  It was a long, long, long, long week of work.  But it came to pass, AND it turned out alright after all.  Can I get another hallelujah?

I just want to get away.  Pack up the car and leave town.  I'd be happy to go anywhere.  Just. Get. Me. Away. From. Here.  Momentarily.

I could go down south, somewhere warm like St. George or Vegas, and bask in the sun.  I would sit by the pool with a good book.  Ah.

But! Even though I did NOT go on a vacation this week, it still has been a success.  Friday night we went up to Chipotle in Sandy (better than nothing, right?) and today we went out to Park City to shop the outlets AND went to the new mall (City Creek-it's awesome) in Salt Lake.  So, it has definitely been a success thus far.

City Creek, with a view of the Salt Lake Temple.

Happy weekend! Hope your's has been as lovely as mine! 

Blogging From My Phone

Can the world get any better? I just discovered the app that lets me update the blog from my PHONE. Awesome. Enjoy some pictures as I lazily lay in bed and blog. On my phone. This is awesome.

The Easter Bunny Came...

I did it.  I made Donald Trump into the Easter Bunny.  Take a look:

Doesn't he make a great Easter bunny? 

Some other things that I did in celebration for Easter was the glow in the dark eggs (that you may have seen on pinterest)...

It worked really well! Only, I wished that I had bigger eggs.  The glow sticks BARELY fit in the regular sized ones, and I had to tape them shut.  I filled them with love notes and such.  It worked out perfectly, because he worked that evening, so when he came home, I had all the lights turned out and these glowing eggs hiding around the living room.  I gave him a flashlight to read the little notes and to catch a good glimpse of Donald. 

Another fun idea that I was able to put to use was these cute paper carrots.  (Do you (barely) see the one in the picture above?)  It was super easy to make and turned out pretty cute.

I also scored a free Easter card from cardstore.com that I had them send (free shipping, too!) to Ryan from his "secret lover".  Okay, maybe it isn't so secret.  But still...It was fun. 

So all in all, it was a mighty fine Easter with fun little surprises along the way.  I love surprises.

Surprise! You've been fired? I hope not...

Well, I came home the other night to this:

What the heck is Donald Trump doing in my apartment?? It nearly gave me a heart attack.  I thought about screaming when I discovered him, but as I continued to think about it, I decided I wasn't that scared.  So I took a picture instead.  

I think I'm going to dress him up as the Easter bunny. Mwahaha.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  Enjoy this wonderful video about our Savior, Jesus Christ.  I want to personally say that I know that He lives, that He died for each and everyone of us, and that He knows you personally.  Everyone can come to know their Savior on a very personal level.  He is just waiting for YOU to act! :)  He loves you!

More Easter happenings here!

Sock Bun

I tried doing a sock bun in my hair. I saw a tutorial on pinterest and I was curious to see if it really worked. Here is the tutorial: 

I made to alterations to the tutorial.

1. I used a clear hair band at the beginning when I started to roll my hair around the sock

2. I used bobby pins to secure the bun to my head at the end

It worked surprisingly well. 

Here is how it turned out:

 

 

Planking

The phenomenon of planking.  Does anyone really understand?

Rainbrella's

Have I ever told you that I love Umbrella's. Seriously. I love Umbrella's. When I was younger I called them rainbrella's. I found a some beautiful paintings that have umbrella's in them and I wanted to share them with you.

I just discoverd this artist: Beata Sasik. She is an artists from Chicago and is truely amazing! I am in love with all of the bright and vibrant colors that she uses in her art.