Day Two: Something you feel strongly about

Well, I feel strongly about a lot of thing, but truthfully, I need a little vent session. So I'm going to chose the moving process. I strongly feel that the moving process sucks.

I am sure at some point, when we actually know where we're headed that it's going to finally get exciting, but so far, it has sucked.

Here is why:

People walking through your house talking about how they could never downgrade their mansion to a town home with a small kitchen – Then why are you here... you saw the photos online. Tell your mansion to suck it. 

People walking through your house and loving it and then their parents that have a much larger home budget come through and tell them that they should live in a much larger home and this house was not appropriate for their child.

Realtors calling you 24-7 looking to list.

Having people call and say they're right outside and would like to come see it now... then scrambling to make sure everything is perfect, just to have them take about 2.5 seconds to go through the whole house before they leave.

People telling me that they could get a much larger home for the price out in Eagle Mountain... then when my sassy self tells them to move out there they say... "We just sold our house there because we didn't like the area."

People texting me an offer $60,000 less than our asking price... take it or leave it the offer lasts until tonight. Needless to say, we left it.

Packing and making a moving mess out of your house, just to have your appraisal come back mysteriously low and have to find time to get things back in order for a re-appraisal.

No offense to the in-laws, but having to move into their house until you find a lot.

Trying to find a lot...

Offering the highest price on a great lot and losing to lower offer of man who just foreclosed on the lot because the investment firm wants to "work with him."

Packing... needless to say.

CC&R's that don't allow modern homes because they would rather have a terrible looking, out of place tuscan looking home than a low-grade roofline.

This is not even a full list, but I feel a lot better so I'll save you all the pain.

Anyways... We finally found a great buyer! And we're set to close on the 18th if we can get the appraisal up. Wish us luck!

Day One - 5 Ways to Win my Heart

So, I started a 30 days blog challenge to hopefully get me back in the blogging spirit, so that I'll be better at documenting our life! Here it goes...

Day 1- 5 ways to win my heart.

1. Typography: Kern (properly adjusting the space between each letter), hate papyrus (the dreaded, awful font) and love Helvetica. Pretty simple right? ;) I always assumed it was too much for me to ask to find a normal non-designer male that would share even a hint of my passion of typography.

However, after Jake had listened to almost 1 million hundred rants about papyrus on the freeway billboards, and the poor kerning in the Macy's display banners, his interest started to peak and he too began scoffing at papyrus *swoon*, I was hooked.

2. Humor: My favorite people to be around, shoes to watch, and songs to listen too, are ones that put a smile on my face. This can generally and easily be done with humor. I love a good laugh and I'm always giggling. The president of my company says I have a good sincere laugh- similar to a toddler (yup, he literally compared me to a toddler. In front of a client nonetheless.)

3. Suits: Nothing better than a man in a good tailored suit. That's actually one of the first things I noticed about Jake. First his eyes, then that suit of his. Ironically, when Jake bought that suit he also thought he looked good. So good in fact, he told his friend he would meet his wife in that suit.

4. The Spirit: I want to be around people that add to the spirit in my life, not take away. If you can do that I will treasure my time around you.

5. Don't judge me: There is nothing worse than being around people that you know are judging your every move. It gets tiresome and I want to be who I am, doing the best that I can. If I feel that I can be myself, the good, bad and ugly around you, then you have my heart.

2013. WOOT.

My resolutions are always a bust, always. Don't get me wrong, I always start out enthusiastic, before failing miserably and making excuses for why it couldn't be done. But every new year I come in all ready to get fit, keep a perfectly clean home, made dinner EVERY night, get up at 6 EVERY morning, etc...

So this year I decided my resolution was to do better today than I did yesterday [Hence, why I am again writing on this blog]. One step at a time... At all aspects of my life. I also want to be more understanding when my best isn't as good as I wanted it to be. I've tried to not sweat it if I didn't run as far at the gym as I would like, or heck, if I wasn't able to make it to the gym at all and work harder the next day. Who cares if Jake had cereal for breakfast yesterday, I'll try and make dinner tonight.

This has seemed to be going a lot better for me. Instead of a clear cut guide line of what I can/cannot accept from myself, I wake up every morning trying to be better at something/anything than I was yesterday. Didn't get the laundry folded last week? That's fine, I'll try today.

I was inspired by this concept from this blog that I read the other day...

http://www.daringyoungmom.com/2012/12/19/drops-of-awesome/

If you haven't read it, you should. It's nice to come to terms with accepting what you are capable of every day and celebrating the good that you do, instead of everything you didn't accomplish that day.

I mostly wrote this for myself, so that when I look back at this post I can remember why I am striving to improve and that it's okay if I don't.

I also just started a fitness challenge with one of my dear friends & her family. I'm excited to have someone to try and improve with. Something that's nice about this challenge is that it's sole focus is not on weight, it's on a healthy lifestyle. Exercising everyday? Check! Drinking all your water? Check! Eating fruits & veggies? Check! It has different variables that you can do to improve... so that the number on the scale loses some importance and being healthy gains some.

For this challenge we also had to give up a vice, ugh, I had so many it was hard to chose. However, I chose the cursed free soda fountain at my work. That thing is of the devil, it glows as I walk past it and I sit close enough that I can hear the "ahhh's" as people take their first sip of Dr. Pepper. Hopefully I'll be able to resist & chick my Soda habit.

What are your New Years resolutions & how are they going so far?

'TIS THE SEASON FOR BLACK WHITE & GOLD

So Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year. However it seems like the first two years that we were married we never had time to do any fun decorating. (school & work can do that to a girl) And this was the first year I was really able to put forth any effort. 

So as some of you know I'm the biggest fan of black and white. I could live in a black and white world & be perfectly content. I'm a lucky girl because almost everything at my work is black and white along with everything in my house. In fact, the guy that came to deliver the mattress today said, "Wow, you guys really like black and white don't you." – I most certainly do. So what else would I do for Christmas besides black, white & gold. 

I wanted to keep it simple, yet sophisticated and just couldn't get myself to do red and green in my primarily black white and wood home. So, here are some of my favorite pieces. 

1. My "Ugly Sweater Christmas Throw": I fell in love. $25 Home Goods

2. My hot chocolate station: Apothecary- Tai Pan, 1/2 off; Gold Plate- Tai Pan $2; Small Jars- Tai Pan $2.50 for all 3. Fill jars with Hot Cocoa Mix, mini marsh mellows, chocolate chips, peppermints & anything else you may want.

3. Merry & Bright Chalkboard: Chalkboard I made a while ago. Used a projector to project design & traced with chalk and hung beaded garland scalloped around the top.

4. Advent Calendar: Advent Calendar I designed and attached to rope and hang across my mantle. I wrote little love notes to the husband for each day. 

You can download the PDF for this advent Calendar and make one here.

5. My fabulous wreath: Purchased at Home Goods for $40 dollars. After about a half hour pacing back and forth deciding on whether or not I should get it. I decided that a wreath that perfect was meant to be.

6. Christmas Card Garland: 20ft. of live garland purchased from Lowes for about $12 dollars. After securing it tightly to the banister (not swooping) I wrapped a cute natural ribbon around the garland and clipped my favorite Christmas cards on to show them off.

7. Glitter Deer: Jake about died when I walked around the corner at TJ Maxx with this in my hand and the "I have to have this" smile on my face. It was about $12.

It's not very much and we don't have a tree up yet, but, I love it. And it's the first time that our house has been festive around the holidays. So eat drink & be merry this holiday season and enjoy the feelings it brings!

BREAKING BACK.

Today is a very important day. A day that might change my life – besides deciding to try and start blogging again, today is the day that we get a new mattress. Now, to some people this may not seem like a big deal at all. But it is... it sooo is. Let me explain:

Before Jake and I were married he had a giant California King mattress. It was a few years old (I'm not exactly sure how old) and it was placed on some old "under the bed drawers" (pretty sure they were from that famous waterbed bedset. Some of you should know the exact set I'm talking about.) with some plywood connecting the drawers and the mattress plopped on top. This bachelor setup was , hilarious, ghetto, functional, but was just not working. Pretty shortly after we were married I kicked the drawers out and we slept on a mattress on the floor. Pretty quickly after we decided that wasn't going to work either. Hoping that no longer sleeping on the floor would solve all my sleeping woes and after looking at the outrageous prices of California King platform beds, we decided to build our own.

It didn't take long to realize that the mattress just wasn't working. Jake and I woke up with pain in our backs and slept tossing and turning into the night. I loved going to hotels (even the cheap ones) so that I could finally get a good nights rest on a half-decent mattress.

I have been having a really hard time sleeping with nightmares, getting sick in the night and just being uncomfortable and so Jake decided maybe it was time his irritable wife got a little sleep. So we headed over to the mattress store and picked out this beauty.

After laying on all the beds and looking for the right amount of cush vs. support and reading reviews at sleeplikethedead.com we decided to pick up a Tempur-pedic Cloud Supreme. (Which just happened to be one of Oprah's 2012 favorite things I'll have you know. http://www.oprah.com/gift/Tempur-Cloud-Supreme-Mattress?editors_pick_id=40387 which we got for much lower than the price tag shows on the website) I'm putting my trust in Oprah and hoping that I love this bed instead of returning it in search for a new one.

If I ever wake up I'll keep you updated on how we like it.

RECOMMITTING– MAYBE

The worst part of blogging is actually having to take time out of my day to blog. I'm not very good at it. As you can tell from the fact that it's been 7 months (yikes) since I last blogged. Luckily time has flown by and I have barely noticed my lack of commitment. So, I'll start off with a quick update on the last 6 months.

Ready, Go!

+ We're are selling our townhome. We've loved it while it's lasted but are looking to settle into a     more modern permanent solution.

+ I am still working at Rain and still loving it. Jake is still jealous and wishes his job was quite as cool as mine.

+ I got a brand new niece, here name is Prentice Kaye Tibbs. She is one wonderful squishy delight. (+1)

+ Since we put our house up for sale our home projects have slowed down dramatically... making me, mostly bored.

+ We've been obsessed with watching Modern Family, Grimm, Suburgatory & Revenge.

+ Jake drew out for the Elk Ridge deer hunt and took off for a week without me to be one with nature. (He smelt like nature when he got home) He shot a big innocent  deserving deer & we are now waiting a year for the mount (which will be placed in the garage) and have tons of deer steaks that I am refusing to cook. (+2)

+ I'm not pregnant. I know, I know, married and graduated what's my problem? But I thought I would clear that up since there have been some off rumors. *scowl*

+ Jake and I just celebrated our 2nd year anniversary. The best part about that is that WE STILL LIKE EACH OTHER! We took off to St. George to enjoy some relaxing golf and great shopping! (+3)

Good things are happening!

So don't judge the fact that I've been too lazy busy to post on this. But I'm excited for this post because it's filled with a lot of good things that are happening. But to kinda recap before I get to the really good stuff, a lot of fun things happened. 

My on of my best friends since elementary (Marissa) is pregnant! Which is crazy to me! But so exciting, so me and my other best friend Natalie threw her a baby shower! Heres a couple shots of the brunch food from that day. 

Next... bah bah ba! I graduated! 

I was extremely happy, as if you couldn't tell from the photograph. I got my Bachelor of Fine Arts (before you judge my artsy fartsy degree know this...) with an emphasis in Graphic Design. I love my major. I get to be creative and have an amazing job while I do it. 

In case you didn't know, I am currently working part time at a Design Agency called Rain. They're located in American Fork. It has been awesome. They focus on interactive design, like web design and iphone applications. It's pretty great! I was also working at AMP Security, I have been there for ages and last week I decided it was time to be done. So I walked into my bosses office and gave him my two weeks. It was actually a really bitter sweet feeling, I was excited to move on, but it's been great while it lasted and I will miss the people there. 

So, there was some unknown after I quit about what would happen in 2 months when my contract ended with Rain. Unknown job status makes me really nervous... fortunately about 3 hours after I quit my job I got a call from a previous co-worker and he put his boss on the phone. He offered me a job as their Graphic Designer starting as soon as possible. So, being excited about this opportunity, I took it! So, starting this week I will be a part time graphic designer for The Color Run and will move to full time status when my contract at Rain ends. And if Rain wants to renew my contract, then I'll have a choice to make. :)

Also, on this post... 

Jake and I have been dying for a dining table. We have had a small little desk with no chairs that has been sitting in the space fo where our dining table should go, so this weekend after months of searching on KSL for the perfect table, I decided that I was going to make one. I wanted it modern of course and to fit in with the rest of my industrial look going on in our house... and voila. Here is is. 

Honestly, I'm obsessed. I am so happy with how it turned out. (I found the chairs on ksl for $30 for both) and couldn't be happier with the juxtaposition of the pieces. It completes my space so well. I can't wait to find an awesome center piece for it. I also have a project coming up where I am going to be making a dining bench for the other side. 

On another great note, my sweet husband bought me this poang chair from ikea. I'm pretty sure it's the coolest, most comfortable chair I have ever had in my life. We decided we like it so much that were going to sell our red ikea couch and replace it with two poang chairs. We're excited. I'm almost completely done with my front room. I'll have to post pictures when we're all done. :D