framed monogram. . .

i found this great DIY project the other day on pinterest.

if you don't know what DIY means you should
probably just stop reading this post right now.
jk.

you may or may not know that i have a slight obsession with monograms.
if it has a letter on it- i want it.
i have exercised some serious self-control while getting items for our house.
right now the only monogramed things we have are some
dish towels and our doormat.
trust me, i have wanted to buy everything from pillows
to cups with the letter T on it- but then our house would just look insane.
logan isn't the biggest fan of monograms.
in his exact words, "monograms are for snobs".
i beg to differ.

anyways, i have been looking for a DIY project for our bookcase.
i needed something to go on the top shelf, so i was delighted
when i found this one!

here are the materials i used. i bought them all at Michaels.

12x12 picture frame, tacky glue, monogram letter T, & a cute piece of 12x12 paper.


step 1: place your paper inside the frame & re-insert the glass.


step 2: put some glue on the back of your letter.


make sure to get a nice amount of glue on the letter- they can be a bit heavy.


step 3: center your letter on the glass and press down firmly.


step 4: place something heavy on the letter and let it dry for about 30 minutes.


and here is the finished product!


i put it on top of our bookcase and i think it's a nice accent.


the great thing about this project is you can mix it up!
you can choose ANY frame and ANY letter and ANY paper!
prep time is about 5 minutes and dry time is 30.
only cost me about 10 bucks to make too!

i am happy with how it turned out and logan is too.
i guess he is living with a snob because my love for monograms
isn't going anywhere soon:)

10 monthiversary. . .

logan & i have been married a grand total of 10 months!

yes- on the 25th of every month since last august
i have made logan celebrate with me:)
our first anniversary is just 2 months away and i literally
cannot believe how fast time has flown by!

i am excited/nervous about opening our freezer and
pulling out some of our wedding cake to eat
for our one year anniversary.
i have heard of people that say it actually tastes good-but i'm skeptical.
i guess i'll let you know how it tastes in exactly 2 months!

book review. . .

last night i finished reading the hiding place.
on the 1-5 scale i would honestly have to say that this book deserves a 5.


it was great!
it's the true story of a woman living in holland during world war II.
she and her family risk their lives to take jews into their
home and protect them during the war.
she and her family are eventually thrown into
prison for saving the lives of many jews.
i don't want to give away anything just in case you
ever plan on reading it, but the faith and courage this woman shows
is truly amazing to read about.
the authors who wrote the book did a fantastic job of re-telling
this woman's story, and i gained a better understanding of what life
was like during the war.
if i had to describe the book using one word it would be: suspenseful.
the majority of the book leaves you wondering if
the jews will be discovered in the house, if this woman's family
will be captured by the gestapo, and once captured what will
become of them as they have to endure the horrors of prison
and german concentration camps.
i love historical fiction, so this book was a fascinating read.
details about how jews were treated and the devastation of concentration
camps was saddening, but overall the message of
courage, faith & hope that this woman had leaves you with a
triumphant feeling that faith in God will overcome any hardship.
if you are on the market for a new book-read this one!
you won't be able to put it down, and it is an incredible story.

home updates. . .

logan & i have been living in our new little house

for about 2 months now!
we have loved settling into our new space and i have
loved organizing things and setting up house.
i wrote a post with some pictures of our new place shortly
after we moved in, but there have been some
recent updates that i wanted to share!

first is the living room:

we got this new TV stand/shelf unit at ikea the other day.
also got the rug by the door at bed bath.
loves it.

our dining room is pretty much the same.
i switched up the center piece with this pretty vase & flowers.
also the newest addition to the dining room is the swamp cooler
that our landlord helped install the other day.
i will admit that i dislike the fact that it sticks out
of the window and looks like a huge random box
(that's what a swamp cooler pretty much is)
but i will admit that the house has been A LOT cooler since we installed it.
we pretty much have to turn it off while we eat dinner or else
we will be blown away by it- even on "low cool" it feels like there is
a tornado in the house.

the bathroom wasn't pictured in the last post about the house- so here it is
in all its glory.

still working on the office.
i am happy to have this little dresser set up though.

we took out the black metal rack thing from the office that we
were using to put random books on, etc.
logan had the idea to use it as a shoe rack for my closet!
genius.

there are still a few things that i would love to complete
this summer for the house:

1) recover the couch in the office
2) make a little fabric covering for the rolling rack that holds
our crock pot, waffle maker, rice cooker, etc.
3) get a new set of blinds for the kitchen- the ones in there now are nasty
and can literally not be cleaned
4) plant more flowers outside in the garden

i have thought long and hard about the fact that we will most
likely only be in this house for about 2 years-maybe a little less.
sometimes i think that it's not worth it to buy things to make the house
feel like it is ours.
nevertheless, if i had to live in a place that didn't
feel like my own in some way then i would go insane.
we were lucky enough to have most of the furniture included
with the house when we moved in!
our only purchases have been the ikea TV stand, coffee table and
the baker's rack for the kitchen.
our table and chairs, couch, love seat, book case, and dresser in the bedroom
were all here.
the desk and dresser in our office are on loan from my bedroom
in salt lake:)

i will admit that i have exercised restraint in purchasing home items.
my pinterest isn't making things any easier.
i have often thought long and hard about if i would rather have
unlimited money for clothes or home decor.
lately i have been leaning toward home decor.
with pictures like this, how could you not want unlimited money to decorate?






so until we get our first house and i can make it look
like the pictures you see above, we will enjoy living in our tiny
little space and loving the things we collect that make this house our home.

best dinner ever. . .

this past week we have quickly learned that if you write a

poor review for a restaurant- you get results!
on friday we went to dinner with our friends max & lisa.
they had gone to magleby's for a valentine's date back in february
and basically had a horrible experience.
they were at a table 2 inches away from another couple, the
food wasn't that great, and they were pretty
upset they paid $60 for their experience there.
max decided to use the power of facebook and wrote a
scathing review of the restaurant about a month after
their terrible experience there.
within a couple of days, the manager contacted max
and told him he was sorry about his experience and invited him & his wife
to come back with another couple for a FREE dinner.
logan & i are very glad to be friends with max & lisa because
they picked us to accompany them to the free dinner!

we haven't been to a nice place like magleby's in a while, so this was a treat!
let me tell you- the evening was hilarious.
as soon as we got there the servers knew exactly who we were, and
they knew that our experience had to be top notch.
they escorted us to the best table on the back deck of the restaurant
that overlooked a little waterfall and a pond.
we all ordered some yummy lemonades, & decided we would
all try the new salad bar that has everything from pasta salad to prime rib.
you could go back to the salad bar as many times as you wanted, so
logan was pretty excited about that.
the fact that the salad bar was one of the most expensive items on the
menu may or may not have had something to do with the fact that we all ordered it. . .
but it was a FREE meal!
we had to make it worth it, right?
so after our first round to the salad bar, the waitress comes back & tells us
they have some grilled green beans that were just prepared,
so she offered to bring us some.
we told her that would be great, and within 2 minutes she not only
returned with green beans, but with two huge plates of crab legs!
as she and another waiter were placing the dishes on our table all of us
looked at each other with expressions that screamed
"did you order this??"
the fact was that none of us had ordered the crab legs.
it was all magleby's attempt to guarantee us a fabulous experience!
however, as the crab was placed next to me i immediately began to feel my stomach churn.




i hate seafood.
the smell and the texture and everything about it drives me insane.
i quickly told logan to move it away from me.
he begged me to try a piece, and after much convincing and lots of
lemon and butter i decided to try a tiny bite.
this was a huge deal for me considering the fact that
just the smell of anything from the sea makes me nauseated.
i am happy to report that i did indeed try a piece, and it wasn't that bad!
crab is amusing to me, because i feel like you have to work really hard
cracking and ripping stuff apart just to get a tiny piece of meat at the end.


anyways. . .
we laughed as soon as the waiters left the table and joked about
how we could get pretty much anything we wanted.
a few minutes later, after the boys had gone to town on the crab, the
waitress returned and asked us if we wanted any hot towels.
we all got silent and looked at each other once again in bewilderment.
i had never had a hot towel offered to me at a restaurant.
we all declined and she went on her way.

after a few trips to the salad bar, we hit up the dessert bar, which included everything:
magleby's famous chocolate cake, carrot cake, chocolate
dipped strawberries & oreos, german chocolate cake, cookies, etc.
we had our heaping plates of chocolaty goodness and a moment later
the waitress came to our table yet again, asking if anyone would
like ice cream for their dessert that was kept in the back.
we looked at each other again and this time max conceded to the offering.

near the end of our meal, the manager came out to talk to us.
he was very nice and told max he appreciated him writing the review, etc.
the waitress came out again and proceeded to hand each of us a hot towel as we
talked with the manager.
we quickly wiped our hands with them and put them back on the table.
after the manager left we commented on how awkward it was getting handed
the hot towels in the middle of our conversation with the manager.
bless that little waitresses heart.
she was probably informed that she was going to be stuck waiting on the
table with the guy who wrote the bad review and that she needed
to make %100 sure we had a good experience.
well, she pulled out all the stops for us!
it was hilarious being waited on so diligently, and logan & i were
glad we were invited to come along.
logan & i joked about writing some bad reviews for restaurants to
see if we could get some free meals out of it.
jk.
we would never do it intentionally, but word to the wise-
if you do happen to have a bad experience at a restaurant- let them know!
you could get a 5 star meal out of it complete with crab legs and hot towels.

book review. . .

the only "book reviews" i have done were completed in

my high school years.
therefore, i might be a little rusty at this, but i'm going to give it a whirl.
i just finished reading east of eden by john steinbeck.
literally.
i just put it down and came to the computer.
i had heard from multiple people that it was a great book
and it was really interesting, etc.
i made a recent goal to read a book a month, so i decided to start with this one.

if i had to give it a rating of 1-5 with 1 being awful and 5 being fantastic
i would give this book a 3.5.
it was entertaining and it made me think.
the overriding theme throughout the book was the idea of timshel, or man's
choice to live a life of good or evil.
this theme was laced throughout the book, but didn't truly
hit home till literally the last sentence of the book.
the book was interesting in the way that it paralleled the bible.
it's a story about 3 generations of family and how their lives unfold
based on choices they make.
the main reference to the bible was made through the story of
cain and abel, which reflects the story of a few of the main characters.
overall the book details the individual struggles of good vs. evil.
each character is fully developed and the reader gains a deep understanding
of who they are through their actions.
i enjoyed the fact that steinbeck developed each character, and took time to
paint a vivid picture of each individual.
this helped in the end of the book, when the idea of timshel is really hit home.
i liked the fact that steinbeck developed each character so fully by
giving great detail about their thoughts and actions, however
sometimes that was the very thing that was hard to read.
many of the characters do things that are evil in the book:
prostitution, drinking, blackmail, fornication, etc.
steinbeck goes into great detail about these evil-doings, so the vivid imagery
mixed with some foul and harsh language sometimes
made the book a little hard to read.
if i had known how much sex, lies and drugs would have been in the book,
i honestly probably wouldn't have read it.
it wasn't very uplifting reading about those things.
i understand these evil things were necessary in unfolding the theme
of good vs. evil and man's ability to choose his moral destiny,
but it just wasn't very uplifting.
at the end of the book you come away with the realization that man really
does have the choice between good & evil, and they are not destined for one or the other.
i thought this quote from the book was interesting, and it does
a nice job of encapsulating the theme of the story.

"And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected."

if you want to read a book that makes you think, read it.
however, you will be reading about prostitution, drugs and blackmail
in great detail.
overall i would say it was a good read, but honestly it was a little smutty.
i'm sure those of you who have read it have other thoughts.
so what did you think about the book?
any suggestions for what i should read next?

k-mart adventures. . .

it was recently nuvia's 10th birthday.

i told her that we would make a cake together and do all that

fun stuff that she likes to do, but logan & i got a little

busy and we decided to take nuvia and wilbert to

the sweet tooth fairy.

nuvia was SO excited she could hardly stand it.

she and wilbert got some cake bites, and logan & i shared

a strawberry cupcake:)

i didn't take any pictures. . .sorry.

however.

after we ate our sweets we decided to venture into k-mart.

nuvia got a wii from her parents, and we told her we would

buy her a new game for her birthday.

logan & wilbert headed straight for the toys section, while nuvia

& i took our time perusing the aisles.

let me tell you. . .k-mart has some interesting stuff.

i was shocked & amazed.

i will let the following pictures speak for themselves. . .

the most disgusting marshmallow candy ever invented

can you actually imagine consuming one of these?

a cody simpson poster.

i am assuming cody simpson is a wanna-be justin bieber?

can you imagine this on the wall in your bedroom?

creepy.

speaking of justin bieber, this is indeed a swim suit with his face

right in the middle of it.

i don't even know what to say about this purse.

can i just point out the fact that it has a security tag on it just

in case someone tries to steal it?

honestly.

who would steal this?

and last but not least, this hannah montana t-shirt that sings.

yes.

it literally sings a hannah montana song when you push the little

yellow square in the bottom right corner of the shirt.

k-mart is an interesting place filled with interesting things.

nuvia ended up picking a wii game and was a happy camper.

i had just as much fun in that store as she did.

it was literally fascinating.

if anyone is bored on a friday night, i suggest heading into your

nearest k-mart and just wandering around the aisles.

i promise it will be both entertaining and fascinating.