Under Construction

You may have noticed my blog keeps changing and I have been working on it on and off when I have time (on my lunch break today). So I’m sorry about things looking funky, but hopefully I’ll finish it all this weekend and getting looking the way I want!

Drapes

Our bedroom is coming along, but it’s really really slow going because I don’t have much time to work on it, so eventually it will get there!

But I did finish the curtains this weekend and I really love how they turned out.

I made the curtains out of white muslin with a panel of black, yellow and white fabric at the bottom. I didn’t do any sewing at all and I just used stitch witchery (amazing!) to do it all. I followed the tutorial here.

 

I also took your advice and ended up making a large stencil out of poster board for my wall design (above the bed). I’m going to use it to stencil the design instead of tracing and painting by hand. Hopefully I’ll start this week! Wish me luck!

stencil love.

I think stencils are awesome and I have seen so many amazing projects on tons of different blogs. I have wanted to try it out myself and now is the time!

                      

The above image is from isabellaandmaxrooms.blogspot.com. She honestly has the most amazingly beautiful home I have ever seen! It’s totally my style and I absolutely love everything she does :) I copy her a lot.

                           

She also stenciled these trays and they look very cool.

                       

She has this cool fireplace and the wall above it sticks out a bit and she stenciled on that part of the wall. She also has this awesome antler head-thing that is totally random but looks amazing!

She used the same stencil in her master bathroom.

 

Here are some other really cool stencil projects that I have been drooling over.

So here is the one I am going to attempt to copy in our master bedroom! I’m only going to do the accent wall that I painted darker (the one our bed is against), but I’m so excited!

 

I know it’s going to take forever to trace the stencil (which I have already made and cut out of sturdy cardboard) and then fill it all in, but I think it will be worth it!

Dan thinks I’m totally crazy and I will regret it, but I have no problem taking my time and working on it a little bit at a time.

I’m going to do it a little more subtle than she did in these pictures and use a color a few shades lighter than my walls and maybe add a pearlescent color to it so it has a slight shimmer like some of the pics above.                    

Here is the finished product from jonesdesigncompany.com. Check out her whole house-I love it!

So what do you think? Am I way crazy? Is it going to look amazing or will I regret it? Worst case scenario: repaint the wall! Yay! I can’t wait to get started…now if I only had to work 5 hours a day that would be perfect….

If it works out I may just add a stencil in our “nook” where our built in desk is in the kitchen/family room area!

Hocus Pocus

This weekend was my birthday (Halloween baby!) and it didn’t disappoint. First of all, Shell was in town visiting from Connecticut (can she live further away??) and I was so happy that she came to visit and because everyone loves her so much, some other cute girls came too and we had a great time!          Shelley came with Thad (20 months), Heidi came with Sadie (2 years ish), Breanne came with Brielle (10 months) and Brigitte came with Leah (1 year ish)! It was a party for sure!           The kiddos had a blast scattering toys everywhere and watching Baby Einstein (Sadie was literally inches from the TV most of the time). We were basically oblivious and just ate a lot of brownies and talked a lot! It was so fun to have them at my house and the kids are a blast and sooo stinkin’ cute!                I’ve said this before, but Shelley is really the best person ever, she is such a good friend and I give her a lot of credit for helping me make good decisions through my life because of her example and friendship. I tear up just thinking about her living far away but I’m glad I got to see her! Somehow, Shell manages to be friends with everyone and she honestly brings people together. I know so many great people because Shelley was friends with them first! I love this girl :)           

                                              Heidi, Bre, Shell, me, and Brigitte. We didn’t run out of things to say and I loved having them over!            Next…..is birthday weekend! Dan is of course the best (did I mention he cleaned up the house before my friends came over while I was at work? Love him…). And he was like a child when he gave me presents in bed because he was so excited. He did awesome and he got me a new camera! I love it and it’s so tiny but has a lot of sweet features and it’s great! I can’t wait to take it on our cruise in December.            We went to a corn maze and carved/painted pumpkins Friday night. We were one of the only people over age 16 at the corn maze but we still loved it.                                  Dan made this wonder and he also carved a huge bat pumpkin that I didn’t take a picture of but trust me, it was awesome :)                  I decided to paint my pumpkin and this is how it ended up. Dan traced the bat for me because I have no artistic skills whatsoever. But we had fun and we watched M.J.’s Thriller afterwards!              Sunday we had some family over for dinner and I didn’t take a lot of pictures (the kids distract me too much!), but it was fun. We used dry ice to make “witches brew” rootbeer. This picture is awesome and I wish there was sound because the cackle he was making was amazing.       

Like I said, I didn’t take many pics, but I loved having family over and it was a blast. I got some great presents and once again, my birthday was a success!

Vegassssss

This past weekend we went to Vegas for Dan to run the Ragnar Race with his family. We left on Thursday afternoon and came back Sunday night.

Thursday night we stayed on a houseboat on Lake Mead with the whole group. It was really fun and the boat was really great! There was 3 rooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, family room, and a huge rooftop deck with a kitchenette. There was a slide off the back as well.

                                               Dan and the people in his van got up early to run on Friday morning and the rest of us (supporters and people in van 2) got to chill on the houseboat that morning/afternoon. I’m really good at sleeping and I fall asleep a lot and I managed to fall asleep on the chair in the middle of the mayhem. Someone took my camera and took some pics! Enjoy the butt view…                                                                                                                              

Jon and Julie before they started running (that’s why they were so happy!)

           Katie just chillin’ and probably thinking our family is out of control (she is Dan’s cousin Travis’s girlfriend).                                              Debbie and Marty relaxing on the boat.             Mia was the only child that came and she was a doll. She had burnt her little hand a few days before so she had a bandage on it. But she was loving crawling back and forth in the doorway.

After Dan got back from his first run, the boys (obviously) wanted to get in the water. They had a blast sliding down the slide into the water and the weather was really good! 

   

  I love how happy he is when he can play in the water…he’s like a cute little kid and it’s awesome :)                     Mike going in headfirst..              Katie, Travis, Joe and Debbie watching them swim.                                            Going down the slide doing a “torpedo”.                                                  This is Dan’s super sexy outfit that he ran in. The whole team had matching eye-scorching nike shirts and he wanted to rock some short running shorts so he found these at D.I. I wanted him to wear them without the under shorts…

                                                                  

On Friday we checked in to the M Resort at the very south end of the strip. Dan’s uncle got us a sweet deal and it was an awesome hotel! It was really gorgeous and nice inside and I loved it!                I had the room to myself on Friday night. Dan and Jon and Julie and Becky came in and out at different times in the middle of the night but I slept right through it thanks to my sweet sleeping skills.                  I got to enjoy this lovely bathtub and I even watched TV in the tub because there was a built in TV behind the mirror! Awesome! There is also a nice view into the bathroom from the tub, but they had automatic privacy shades that you could lower.                                             The bathroom had double sinks, marble countertops (see the black TV?!) and a huge tile shower with a bench and a separate room for the toilet. Loved it! I even took my sweet time getting ready Saturday morning and did my makeup on the stool using the make up mirror. Something I never do at home :)               The beds were amazingly comfortable and there was a 42” plasma in the room as well. My only complaint when I’ve stayed in nice hotels is that they make you pay for Internet and breakfast! Lame! This one also had a fridge but it was only for use of their expensive drinks and stuff. That is definitely annoying.                 I went to see the team meet up at the finish line and they all ran in together with Tyson as he finished. They were easy to spot in their awesome glowing shirts!        

Team AnniHILLators crossing the finish line!

           Team photos…did I feel left out because I didn’t run this race? Nope. I was freshly showered and got a nice long nights sleep :)

What a hunk!      

                                        Below are the team members who also ran the Wasatch Back in June. If you run both races you get a special medal for “Saints and Sinners”. They also got a general medal for running two ragnar races in one year. Good work!

I love this boy.

So after the race, we went back and everyone cleaned up and rested a little and then we hit up the hotel buffet…holy smokes it was amazing (and good thing because it was 30 bones a person! But worth it for sure!)

               We were about ready to riot by the time we got in because we were so starving and had been waiting in line for about an hour. But luckily it didn’t disappoint!             This lovely lady kept us company on the TV screens while waiting in line. I kind of wanted to punch her because she was so excitedly showing us all the delicious food on the other side of the wall while we waited and waited and waited…

I absolutely love seafood and this buffet included seafood so I about died when I saw the mountains of cold shrimp! It was sooo goooood! I also had Mahi Mahi, clam chowder, sushi and a lot more. The pastas and vegetables were awesome too.

I’m not much of a meat eater, but Dan was definitely in heaven with the tri-tip and all kinds of meat and steaks.

            They had so much to choose from including a huge soup and salad section, pastas, fruits, Chinese food, pizza and more! It was amazing and everything tasted so good.             Dan hit up the crab legs and he was a very happy boy. Buffets are good for boys that eat a lot. Mike (Dan’s brother) looked so happy when I walked by him with his towering plate full of food.              We saved the best for last and checked out the dessert section. It didn’t disappoint and there were tons of cookies, cakes, fruit tarts, eclaires, brownies and…. GELATO! YUMMMMM. There were so many different flavors and we could eat as much as we wanted! I was pretty full at that point, but this was lovely. The dessert was definitely my favorite (hello? how is it not?!)                I forgot to mention the “oreo shooters” with pudding and oreos. There was also creme brulee, tiramisu, and some kind of marshmallowy chocolatey thing thats was good too!            This guy ate like a horse. I’m not surprised because he’s a big guy and guys in general eat a lot but holy smokes! He had 3 HEAPING plates of crab legs and Julie and I were in awe of the speed that he managed to go through them. It was amazing!

The buffet was a great way to finish the weekend and especially great for the runners to refuel (I have no excuse for the amount of food I ate…).

Vegas was really fun and it was especially great to watch the team run and enjoy time with everyone!