Aubert Peak

So we went to Colorado (in July) and I TOTALLY forgot to blog about it! RUDE. Well, I just noticed that Harrison uploaded some of the photos to our Picasa site. I forgot that I took this photo (I could be wrong though... Harrison and I both took photos of this... but I am going to assume this one is mine).

Aubert Peak is a little mountain that sits very close to the family cabin. I have always loved this peak. I think this little photo does it justice. Just beautiful!

Bed Making Helper

Spok decided to "help" me make the bed this afternoon. By help, I mean claw at the sheets while I was laying them down... and crawling under the straightened sheets.

What was old is new again

Well, I saw this idea in a magazine once and just saw it again on a design blog I love trolling. So, I decided to just make my very own refurbished clipboard memo board.

5 minutes later- here is my finished product. I will definitely be heading to the thrift store to find more clip boards. I do believe the area around my desk could use some of these!

Easy How To Directions:

1. Get an unwanted clipboard
2. Find some super cute scrapbook paper (I just used a piece that I had laying around)
3. Measure and cut the paper to fit the board
4. Mod-Podge or double-sided tape the paper to the board
5. Use ribbon, lace, ephemera, charms, glitter, or anything else you can think of to decorate!
6. Find a very useful place for your new board!

I put the clipboard on my garage door. I am always forgetting things when I leave for work (receipts, bills, cards, and stuff like that). So, I thought I would put this first board right where I will see it every time I leave the house!

Thankful Thursday.... really late

So- I made a deal with myself to start my Thankful Thursday posts again... and I failed. But- better late than never, right?? So- here we go!

Things I am thankful for this week:

A JOB
Yes, I am thankful for my job. I know I complain about it a lot but I am thankful for it. My job is a huge challenge. But I get to meet a lot of really interesting people. I also get to do what I love to do best... talk!

Air Conditioning
The Vegas heat is just overwhelming sometimes. I do love that I can walk into my house and have cool air running. Such an amazing thing.

My Sister Charnae
Yes. I love all of my (9) siblings, but Nae has been on my mind the last few days. Her and her fiance, Dayle, were in a scary car accident this last week, but came out with minor injuries. How thankful I am for that. I thought about what would have happened if it were worse, and I just don't think I could have handled it. I am so thankful for her bubbly personality and her willingness to be kind and concerned for others.

A New Pillow
I do believe I have posted about pillows like 3 times on Thankful Thursday. That is how much I love them. I got a new pillow about a month ago or so. It is like a little slice of heaven right here on Earth. My head is just surrounded by soft heaven every night. I wake up without a headache too! That's good!

Well- that's all for this week. I will do this more often, I promise!

LOVE PEACE AND CHICKEN GREASE (by the way- who came up with that... weird)

Metal Tray Transformation

Well, I got crafty this past week. I have been planning on doing this project for like 2 years now and I just barely did it! It was well worth it too! I posted the inspiration which came from a how to in Somerset Life (winter 2008 edition).



Here is MY finished project. Now mind you, my photos are not as good as the ones in the magazine, but I do believe I did alright with this one. It was super easy and pretty fun! I love when a project comes together just the way I want it to!

Before
(metal serving tray from Goodwill for $1.50)

After
(2 coats baby blue spray paint and a rub of black ink)

Sunburned

Well, even though we thought we wouldn't get burned in San Diego with all the clouds... we were wrong. We are both quite pink! We even talked to each other on the beach about how we should put sun screen on even though it was cloudy... because we KNOW that the UV rays still come though the clouds. Oh how silly we feel now.

With Love from San Diego!

Well, this past weekend, Harrison and I took a quick trip to San Diego. We went for a couple of reasons. 1. To see my cousin, Andre, get married. 2. To hit the beach. 3. To get out of the awful heat here in Vegas.

First stop: The San Diego LDS temple, where my cousin was married to his beautiful wife, Andrea. It was the first time Harrison and I had been to this temple. It was just beautiful.

The theme of the wedding was very cute... CARNIVAL! The girls' outfits were super cute (red and white striped tops with light blue tulle skirts)! Their bouquets were also very cute.

All of the girls in the wedding party wore different red shoes. This was probably my favorite part!

The guys in the wedding party wore red and white, or blue and white striped ties, and these awesome pinwheels for boutonnieres.

This is a photo of my Uncle Ron (the groom's father) and my Uncle Dennis (my mom's brother)

The Bride (Andrea) and The Groom (Andre)

I love this photo of father and son!

This is my Aunt Dixie, Andrea, Andre, and Uncle Ron.

After the wedding, we went to California Pizza Kitchen for the wedding luncheon. We got a shot of the car before they left!

After the wedding festivities, Harrison and I went back to the hotel to rest a season. We went exploring around Coronado Island to scope out a spot where we would hang out on the beach the next day. This is a beautiful place! It is now on my list of places to live!

Us at the beach.
It was SUPER cold when we first got there. The sun was covered by fog and clouds. As you can see, I have sweats on. The water was WAY too cold to even get into!

While I napped, Harrison made a frog out of sand! FUN!

After we took a stroll around the beach and ate lunch, the sun poked out. The weather was BEAUTIFUL the rest of the day. The water was still too cold to go into, but we had fun standing with our toes inside and people watching from our beach blankets.

Library of Congress

Jaala and I have been seeking out photos to put on our walls. While we are too poor to get any framing done we still want decorations because our walls are so bare. I have recently spent much time on the website of the Library of Congress. Which is where they keep copies of pretty much any historical photo you could ever imagine, and most of them are in High Resolution which makes for easy printing.
So thanks to the taxes we all pay Jaala and I have been able to get some pretty cool and meaningful photos at no charge (at least besides printing on our computer). Here are a few of them.

Rio De Janeiro RJ Brasil-in the early 1900s, a special place for both of us.

Peach pickers in Delta, CO in the 30s-I was a peach picker one summer after high school, and Delta is only about 50 miles from Grand Junction, CO where I grew up and Jaala and I met.



Shiprock, NM-Near Farmington, NM where Jaala was born. The navajo people are very important to Jaala's family, her Dad grew up on a reservation (despite being 100% white) and Jaala thought he was part Navajo for many years.



Old Timey photo from old times.- it is called the Moonshiner's Daughter.- This is just a style that Jaala really likes, but the woman looks quite a bit like Jaala's mom.




This is a haystack in Delta, CO in the 30s.-part of a series by a photographer as part of the WPA. The famous posters of which the LOC also has copies of.




A fair in Pietown, NM-another in the WPA series from the 30s. I can't believe the clarity of these photos. Being from the 1930s they make the people seem more real since their colors are so vibrant. I have always had a problem imagining things from the past as real because of poor image quality. These images however help to make those times more real because they are such high quality.

So go to the Library of Congress website and do an image search for anything you wish to see. Chances are they have it and you don't have to pay anything for it.
http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html