Finished Project!!

Well, I finally finished my project! I have been so busy the last few weeks with a trip to Arizona, spending time with my sister, and a trip to Star Valley. I have just been working on this when I have a few extra minutes.

As you know, I got Annie Sloan's chalk paint for my birthday! I was so excited to use it! It is so great because you don't have to prime, or sand anything and the paint goes on just about anything. It was quite easy to use. The trickiest part was applying the wax afterwords. I had watched several tutorials found here and here and googled even more information. I painted, clear waxed, dark waxed, sanded, then clear waxed again. So... here is the big reveal!!!

Before:

 

 In the process: 

 Finished (kind of):

I kinda feel like the drawer pulls are too modern for the finish I did. I am trying to find other handles that will fit, and look a little better. What do you think?? Not bad for my first try right?

Wait.... 25!?!?!

I just have to post about my  wonderful 25th birthday, BUT I would first like to say 25!?!?!?! Holy crap! When did that happen? 25 year olds are mature, responsible, established, etc.... and I am none of those things... random tangent--- I think age should be given according to those type of things. It may be a more useful tool....

ANY WAY, My wonderful birthday got off to a bit of a rocky start. I woke up, showered, packed up all my stuff, and hopped in the car to go get Brennan only to find that my battery was dead and my car wouldnt start. We think one of the doors didn't get closed all the way. So, I called Brennan, he brought his roommates car and jumped mine, then we ran back to his house to get his stuff and drop off his roommates car.

Once we get to his house, we packed up my car, grabbed breakfast, and he gave my my birthday present!!!! It was the best thing I could ever ask for! As you may know from my previous post, i want to get into redoing furniture and i found this super cool paint that gives an antique look and you dont have to sand or prime or anything like that!! I was SO excited! I love how much he is encouraging me. I don't think I would do it otherwise. Next, we drove down to American Fork Canyon. The ranger at the mouth of the canyon tells us all the spots are already reserved, but there was a spot towards the back we could go. We drove straight there and found a perfect spot! We set up camp, and just hung out  for a minute. From there, we took a quick hike, where Brennan decided to carve a tree with my initial and my age.. HA! He said Now this tree will remember your age forever! To which I replied "does that mean I'm going to be 25 forever??" if only... HAHA

From there we went fishing and Brennan taught me how to fish from the shore. (I had only fished from a boat before) We both just sat and enjoyed each others company and enjoyed nature. We saw the cutest momma duck and baby ducks! One poor little guy had a hook stuck in his beak! :( We were NOT catching a thing, though, and we were getting hungry, so we drove back to our campsite to fix some DELISH food. I am telling you, he and I made these tinfoil dinners in hopes of putting a fish in, but instead we stuck a burger patty in  with the veggies. They turned out PERFECT and it was SO yummy!!! By this time, our friend John showed  up and enjoyed dinner and dessert with us. For dessert, we made cakes in orange peels! I saw on pinterest, and was nervous to try it, but it was SO good! We just hollowed out the oranges and dumped the cake mix in, wrapped it in tinfoil and stuck it in the coals. It was like the PERFECT birthday dinner! From there, we went back to the lake. I read while the boys fished. Brennan still caught nothing, but John was catching like crazy.

After fishing, we went back to the campsite and met out friend Katie, and her two friends. We just made a fire and talked til late. It was one of the best birthdays I have ever had. Very simple, very relaxed. We invited a BUNCH of people, but a lot had things come up, so it was just a small group of us. I LOVE LOVE LOVED spending that much time with Brennan just hanging out. He really made my birthday perfect! I am so lucky! Yay for birthdays! (maybe not so much of a yay for being 25....)

NEW HOBBY! Well, maybe....

So I suddenly, and kind of randomly decided that I wanted to get into repainting old furniture and selling it! I just thought it would be something to do to do entertain myself, AND to maybe make a little extra money (cuz who doesn't like that!?!). Probably the best part of this all is how supportive Brennan is of me doing it. I mentioned it to him kind of as a joke when he told me he found his old power tools. I said, "Really?? that means you could build something cool and I can make it look nice and then we can sell it!" and he wasn't really too thrilled about that part, but the conversation led to me looking for already built furniture and redoing it. So, I started my adventure by spending like HALF of a day yesterday looking at KSL in the free section. Cheap is nice -- free is better!

This is not something for the faint of heart, let me tell you. I just checked every few hours for the heck of it and saw a whole lot of retro couches, free moving boxes, dirt, rocks, and yes even the occasional "tires filled with cement".  Thank goodness! I have been looking for those! BUT all of the sudden I noticed and add for free paint! I thought, well paint could get me started. I need the paint to paint the furniture, right?? So I picked up a 5 gallon bucket of grey paint. Keep in mind here people that my house is SMALL. Emphasis on every letter. I just have a 5 gallon bucket of paint sitting in my room now.

I figured it would be a slow process, but at about 9 last night I looked one last time, after Bachelorette of course....and what do you know, there is a BEAUTIFUL roll top desk for FREE!! It had no information whatsoever though. I text Brennan and told him to go look at it and how cool it was. and then to my surprise he said, "Let's go pick it up!" Luckily, he had his parents suburban. I called the lady and got the information and off we went! I called my friend Cody on the way because she said it was heavy. That was an understatement. I felt terrible because Cody (only has one leg) and Brennan (has 2 herniated disks in his back) had to carry this MASSIVE desk down 2 flights of stairs... I thought for sure they were both going to hate me after that. Amazingly they were both still mostly smiling when they finished.

Oh yeah-- remember how I said my apt is SMALL??? and I was the proud new owner of a GIANT desk?? Well my amazing, handsome, supportive boyfriend willingly volunteered to store it at his house. His house is not huge either. the desk is currently monopolizing his dining room. The desk is in REALLY good condition and has lots of nooks and crannies and is  LARGE so Brennan convinced me just to clean this one and resell it. Both Brennan and I wished that we had room for it cuz it is a REALLY cool desk! We spent about 2 hours today cleaning and shining it up to take pictures and re-post it on KSL to sell! Most the desks similar to it are going for like $200-$400 so hopefully we can make some money off it! yahoo! :)

My next project -- once the desk is gone-- is to redo a little wood file cabinet that used to be my dads. :)

Solar Annular

So, I'm sure many of you heard about the Eclipse that happened on Sunday... Well Brennan and I had talked about getting the special glasses and watching it, but both of us had forgotten until yesterday (sunday) I told him earlier in the day that a burger sounded really good. We had some friends BBQing so we decided to maybe go there. But then last minute we decided to hurry and cook some burgers at his house, wrap them in tin foil and then drive up to our spot on Wasatch Dr. to watch it. It was quite the adventure because we had to hurry. By the time we decided what we were gonna do, it had already started. At the last minute we decided on a different spot higher up on the mountains on the east side of Salt Lake. It was SO incredible! We had an amazing view of the valley, and a great view of the eclipse. We laid out a blanket in the tall weeds and sat and ate our burgers and talked and watched it. It was so perfect! I loved it! The best part.... the sun is bright, you can't just look at it with your bare eyes, right?? This is what we used to look at it... :)

Please note that he has 3 pair of sunglasses AND a CD. Everything the news said NOT to use in order to look... HA! but take that news, it worked perfect!!  We took this picture right before we were getting ready to leave. I just LOVE this picture because usually Brennan is SSSOOOO photogenic and I look like an idiot... but FINALLY I look mostly normal and he has a goofy look on his face. 

What a fabulous Sunday with my Honey! He's so great!

Things I love...

In no particular order... 

• June July and August....
• The thought of moving to 3rd grade.
• BRENNAN! :) He's real cute!
• Sunshine!! 
• when I make a meal that's actually edible
• chocolate especially with peanut butter
• Dr. Pepper
• staying in my PJs til noon
• naps
• a clean house
• reorganizing
• summer
• vacations
• my family
• mountains
• draw something
• 
  

Nothing Important...

I haven't been too good at blogging lately. I just feel like I don't have anything too exciting going on. I wake up, go to school, get so frustrated I could die, come home, eat dinner and go to bed. I never really considered myself a yeller. I would get strict with my students before, but never yell. This year I fell like I yell every single day. I have lost any and all patience for my class. I have really been trying to focus on the positive lately because I have just been so miserable. Today was the first day in a long time I didnt come home super stressed out. School is out in 17 days and I can't wait!! In better news, I am switching to 3rd grade next year. I am SO excited to go back to 3rd.  This summer I am just hanging out. I have a few trainings and and a trip to Arizona. I'm excited for the summer to come so I can relax!!!!!!

Couponing???

So, I think I have decided that this summer I want to get into couponing. I have read a few blogs that have a lot of tips and tricks for beginners. I think I am gonna start gathering coupons and keep my eye out for sales. I dont want to be the kind of crazy coupon lady that has 83 cans of corn just cuz.... but I wanna try it out to save money. I would use it for stuff I would actually use. Any advice from my blog readers out there? Do any of you do couponer stuff? What tips do you have? I think it will be good for summer so I have something to do! We'll see how it goes...

Summer, How I've Missed You!!!

Something about the thought of summer makes me ssssssooo happy and excited!! I just feel like I am constantly in a better mood in the summer! I'm not sure if it's the SUN and warmth, or being outside, or the fact that I don't HAVE to work... but I just LOVE it!! Lately it has been sssoo warm here! I have taken my students outside to work sometimes. I am just loving the weather!

Speaking of being outside, Salt Lake has opened the brand new City Creek Shopping Center. Brennan has been just about obsessed with it, so of course we had to go. It is SSSOOO pretty and fancy! It doesnt even look like Salt Lake! I wish I had more money to go shopping there all the time! Here we are enjoying the beauty of the buildings and sunset. I just love this picture of us! He is so handsome, right?? He is rockin his Miami Vice look... HA! He cracks me up.

And to top off our weekend, we woke up early and booked it down to Spanish Fork for the Festival of Colors. It was really fun!! . I hate the way it smells... but man it's fun! Here we are all covered in colors! My hair seemed impenetrable to the colors, but I think it just soaked right in. I had to wash my hair a few times before the water ran clear. 

I have just loved being outside, being with Brennan, and enjoying the warm weather! I am a lucky girl!! Life is good!!

HOORAY!

Well, the good news is, I FINALLY got my computer cord fixed and I can actually do stuff on the internet instead of just look at it on my phone! BOO YEAH!!!

Since Christmas time, kind of a lot has happened. I'm not gonna lie, it has been a rough couple months. It is some kind of personal stuff, but mostly just my class. I have a SUPER hard class this year. Veteran teachers come to me and say "I don't know how you do it!" I have a terrible time finding a sub because the ones that are good subs know how terrible my class is and usually just happen to be busy that day. So then I take my chances getting some poor, unsuspecting district sub that tells me how terrible my class was and doesn't even leave their sub information for me to call them again. Its too much of a mess to try to clean up by getting a sub most the time. In January and the first part of February they were running me so ragged that I didn't even want  to teach any more. The stress and the frustration from school leaked into every other part of my life. It was not pretty. It is getting slightly better. Not that I want to curse it by speaking too soon, but it is better.

Luckily, I have an amazing boyfriend. He has been so patient with me. I feel bad for him because I have been such a terrible monster lately. He has just smiled and stuck through it. BLESS HIM! He is so good to me! I am so lucky to have him around. Heaven knows what he sees in me, especially after these last couple months. I am convinced that February is cursed. I have had like 4 bad Februarys in a row. 2009 my Grandma died, 2010 my dad was super sick, 2011 plenty of boy drama and work drama to go around.... and 2012... I got my first speeding ticket. I guess I just needed something to blame.... February isnt all bad.... :)

PS my niece turns 8 and is getting baptized tomorrow!! WOWZER! how and when did that happen??? It makes me feel old... I turn 25 in like 4 months.... I gag every time I think about it. That sounds so old....

Wowzer....It's been a while...

Hey look people!!! I am NOT dead!!! I know all 5 of my blog readers have probably been very concerned lately. I havent updated since the beginning of August! Sheesh! Kind of a lot has happened since then. First of all, let me just say that my computer cord broke and so I have been using the internet on my phone...Needless to say, you cant update your blog from your phone.

Starting with the rest of August..... The trip to San Diego with my roommate and 2 friends was really great! We had so much fun! It was really great! In the middle of August we drove to Bear Lake and camped overnight for my roommate Bailey's birthday. It was kind of an adventure finding a place to camp and we ended up camping smack in the middle of a field. haha! Lots of fun things happened. I say that somewhat sarcastically... It was fun until I got SUPER sick that night. I was up off and on throwing up all night. It really WAS fun though because I met Brennan. I automatically thought he was super cute and funny, but I thought I had no chance with him. I just kept thinking I needed to think of one of my cute friends to set him up with. (I was also sorta dating someone else... HA) After Bear Lake I just enjoyed the rest of the summer until school started.

When school started I was teaching 3rd grade. I LOVED IT! I had a really fun team that I worked with, a super CUTE class with only 20 kids, and I loved my new school. Now, only 2 of those things are the same. I have a great team, and i love my school....but i do NOT have a cute class... or a small class. At the end of September I was switched to 5th grade because enrollment dropped and a 5th grade teacher volunteered to leave. I now know why she volunteered to leave. My class now is very hard. I have a HUGE range of ability and have HUGE attitudes about everything. I have to be mean teacher 24/7. Other teachers take my class for something and say "I don't know how you do it everyday!!"

Other than that, I started hanging out and getting know Brennan at the beginning of September. . We really started dating by the middle of September. We pretty much insta-bonded. He gets my sense of humor and we have fun just doing the simplest of things together. He is real smooth and charming and says all the right things. He makes me think and is easy to talk to. For some reason he likes me too...

As of lately I have just been working and hanging out with Brennan. I am moving in with Berkley again at the end of January! I am super excited. I came to my sister in AZ for Christmas and it has been delightful! We drove around with the windows down! Its so warm compared to Salt Lake! Its been so fun playing with my family too! Hooray for Christmas! and for not being dead! :)