Jonathan's Birthday Month

 October was wonderful because I was able to celebrate Jonathan's birthday throughout the month! Though I didn't take too many pictures, I want to write down what we did so we can remember.

We started out strong with a trip to Rockwell Ice Cream on the first so Jonathan could have some "A-NieNie-s" black licorice flavored ice cream. He loved it!

A few weeks later, I took him to get some fresh pressed apple juice at Rowley's Red Barn. It's one of his favorite treats and reminds him of his mission in Washington state. We went after dinner, so it was already dark and that's why I didn't take any pictures. While we were looking at all the wonderful things they sale, we saw the "Jonathan" apple variety. Of course Jonathan needed to try it, so we each got an apple, a gallon of apple juice, and some ice cream. All were delicious!

After we took the picture for Lyla's Cinderella birthday post, we took a few family pictures. Even though this one is blurry, I love it.

The night before his birthday, I had him open his presents. I knew that Saturday would be a busy day starting with our shift at the temple and then going out to dinner in Sandy. For one of his presents, I framed one of our favorite quotes that I wrote.

On Jonathan's actual birthday, we went out to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. I love the crab and he loves their key lime pie for dessert. It was perfect! Afterward we did some window shopping at Crate and Barrel, one of our favorite stores. We've started planning out what we want to buy there after Jonathan starts his career next year.

On our way back home, there were fireworks celebrating his birthday!

Birthday month was a success!

Clip Board Wall

I have a problem with loose papers taking over my desk. It drives me absolutely crazy! Thanks to browsing on Pinterest, I got the idea of hanging clipboards on the wall to organize the mess.

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 Before the company I work for moved, they were getting rid of various supplies including clipboards. I grabbed 8 and hung them up on my wall.

I love them! I have everything I need without it being a mess all over my desk.

A Quick Project

A few months ago, I was organizing my jewelry box and noticed two things. I hadn't worn most of them in months and that they were tangled like crazy! I wasn't wearing them because I didn't see them. I decided to make my own necklace organizer.

I had an extra piece of wood from a previous project and lots of finishing nails. I painted the board and hammered in the nails. Now I can see my necklaces and have started wearing them again!

Last Year's Projects

Since moving to Utah, I've done a number of projects around our apartment but I haven't taken the time to share them. Here are the ones I took pictures of. One of the very first things I did was hang up some of our engagement pictures. This was the first time they have been displayed since our reception. Yeah, it was about time!

I was so excited for spring weather that I sewed a simple paper bunting for some much needed color.

This project actually started when we were still in California. Jonathan's office chair was lacking in padding, so he ripped off the fabric from the seat and bought some foam. I decided that we should change out the fabric for the entire chair. I dragged my feet with actually getting done, but after our apartment was more or less set up I couldn't stall any longer! I got a staple gun and finally covered the chair. It looks so much better!

My laptop and tablet needed a cover. I have yards and yards of felt, so I made a cover for each of them. It couldn't have been an easier project!

I made a mini California using finishing nails and embroidery floss. On the back, I wrote the years Jonathan and I lived in California. I love it so much that I plan on making one for each of the states Jonathan has lived in! (He's lived way more places than me.)

I made my very first baby blanket for Ruby. I figured it was about time I make one since she is the 10th child I am an aunt to. FYI, it is not very easy sewing minky fabric and satin binding. They just want to slide all over the place! I figure I don't need to make another blanket until my 20th niece or nephew.

My cousin and his wife had twins in December and I decided to make a set of onesies for their baby shower. Since they were having a boy and a girl, I made a little tie for Oliver and a necklace for Nettie with matching fabric. I didn't realize just how big my sewing machine was until I was struggling to sew them on these newborn sized onesies!

Trying Something New

For Christmas 2013, I wanted to give my grandpa a really personal gift. I follow a lot of artists on Instagram and I decided to give him a watercolor of the Los Angeles Temple. That's where he and my grandma were sealed to each other and their children. To make it even more personal, I decided to do the painting myself. It didn't seem like it would be too difficult to do. I looked at a lot of pictures of the temple and then I got out my engineering paper and did a sketch of the temple. The hardest part for me was to draw on a completely blank paper.

I did a few tests before I painted to make sure it would turn out. I ended up using a brown Sharpie for all of the details.

This past Christmas, I decided to do a couple of more paintings. I was originally going to give each set of parents a painting of the Oakland Temple since that is where they were married. As I thought more about it, I realized that my mom didn't have any pictures or paintings of the Idaho Falls Temple. Before moving to California, her dad helped with the construction of the temple. I went through the same steps as I did for the LA Temple for both temples.

Apparently I didn't take pictures of the progression of the Oakland Temple, but at least I one of the finished painting!

Jonathan's mom seriously thought I bought the painting. I couldn't have asked for a better compliment than that!

I'm still trying to be brave enough to do one of the Sacramento Temple. Arches are really intimidating!

Confetti

Ever since we took down our paper Christmas tree, our wall has been naked and it's been driving me crazy.

I finally found a project that sounded perfect! A giant confetti wall!

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Jonathan grabbed a huge stack of Pantone paint samples from Lowe's and I was ready to go!

I used my two and half inch circle punch to make the confetti because it is so much easier than cutting out the circles myself.

I was lucky enough to have Jonathan to help me put them up.

It is so nice to have color up on our wall again!

Pinterest Does It Again!

I decided that I wanted to make some simple cases for some of my electronics. I wasn't too sure about what I wanted so I checked out Pinterest. I ended up finding these adorable felt iPhone cases.

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The instructions were simple enough and thanks to my math skills I was able to figure out how much felt I would need for my much larger electronics. I decided to do something a little bit different for my laptop case, but I absolutely love the finished product!

Even Jonathan wants me to make one for his laptop!

Life Lately

Since it's been a while since my last post, I'll share quite a few pictures of what we've been up to for the past month and a half.

Back at in April, Mercedes came over to help me bake a colorful cake. She may or may not have eaten half of the batter...

Jonathan took me on a tour of a few of the places he lived in Provo before he met me.

This was his first apartment which is also where his dad lived when he met Jonathan's mom.

He lived in the basement of that cute little house.

We then went to hear Elder Dallin H. Oaks talk about religious freedom and how it is still very important in our day. Jonathan made an audio recording of what he said, so if you want a copy of it let us know!

Elder Quinten L. Cook, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, and Elder Jeffery R. Holland were in the audience as well.

Elder Oaks on the big screen!

I finally printed out about 40 of our instagram pictures!

I'm embarrassed with how long it took, but I finally recovered Jonathan's desk chair.

We took a trip up to Idaho to see these two silly monkeys! Seth was showing us the new bedspread he got from my mom for his birthday. Jonathan is totally jealous and now wants his own Star Wars bed.

We flew kites at the farm and were totally unprepared for how cold it still can me in Idaho in the springtime.

I got a beautiful flower arrangement from my parents for Mother's day.

We had some crazy clouds come through and cover up the mountains.

We walked around BYU and saw a really cute duck family!

Charlotte made her debut on our photo wall. (I'll share the rest of it another time!)

Mercedes, Jonathan, and I all got to shoot Taylor's AR-15 for the first time. I really can't wait to have one of my own! It's a really nice gun!

Jonathan and I took a hike up Rock Canyon on Memorial day with a lot of other people.

What are men to rocks and mountains! - Jane Austen

We found a nice old car that apparently tumbled off of the trail.

After Mackenzie's birthday party, we checked out the progress of the Payson temple.

I got to spend a couple of hours with my cousin's adorable little girl!

We took another trip up to Idaho, (not surprising!) to find Clara jumping on our bed while Seth and Jonathan played with legos.

We all walked to church. Seth was holding my hand, trust me he was really there!

Seth and Clara picked some flowers for me.

It's nice now that spring is really here and quickly turning into summer! In less than 2 weeks my parents will be here and so there will definitely be more to share!