Fall Checklist

Just wanted to share something that I found on Pinterest that I'm so excited to do! (Super plus, Cody wants to do them too!)

I've never been much of a Fall fan, but this year I'm so excited for it! (Maybe it's just because of this bucket list?) Anyways, I hope you use it and love it!!

A couple of my favorites that I want to do right this second: Take a nature walk, Go to a pumpkin patch, Make leaf art, and drink fancy coffee drinks {Caramel Cream Frappuccinno with extra Caramel from Starbucks!! Coffee free, and absolutely delicious!}

Super short update. Meaning one picture and 22 words.

We gave Dexter a hair cut.. just around the eyes so he can finally see. Aren't his eyes just so dang cute?!?!

Dexter's Diaries

Hello everyone.. I'm Dexter, I guess.. Mom and Dad gave me about 20 different names last night, and they said they're going to keep this one... but we'll see.

Mom came and got me yesterday, and took me away from my Dad, brother's and sister.. I didn't like that. Then she tried putting me in a kennel, but I just wanted to be on her lap. We got "home", so she called it, and at first, I didn't like it at all! The yard was too big and scary, the neighbor's dogs were mean and made me run inside and hide.

I did go potty outside though, which made Mom and Dad really happy, so I'll keep doing that (:

My favorite things to do in this new house are:
-Whine.. because I'm sad and in a confusing place.
-Curl up in a ball on the couch next to Mom while she either does homework, or watched Bones.

-Sit on Mom or Dad's lap when we're in the car.
-Give kisses to Mom and Dad!

I really like my parents, and I like my new home, but I'm just shy so they think I don't like it. I can't wait to run around in the yard and wrestle with Daddy! See you later!

This post is pretty much for Kayla.. or anyone else that doesn't check facebook, but looks at my blog

We got a puppy! And I know you don't like puppies, Kayla, but you need to know (: We absolutely love him! But I'll tell the story first!

We went on a hike up Donut falls on Saturday, and it's FREAKING GORGEOUS!! It was a pretty dang easy hike, but it was absolutely worth it! The hike up to the actual Donut part was a little tough, and you have to walk through a little stream, but it's pretty easy to stay out of the water.

After the hike, we were STARVING, so we decided to eat at Kneaders.. Which is a very special treat because of how expensive they are. But it was delicious beyond all measurement!! We then decided it would be fun to rent a movie.. yanno, from Blockbuster! So we were looking all over for them, and ended up at Animal Ark, where Blockbuster used to be right next to. So of course, we go inside and start looking around, and I'm not kidding.. there are some of thee cutest dogs there! It seriously broke my heart to have to leave without one! They were about $700, and I was just about ready to unload our savings account.. Good thing Cody was there to stop me. So we leave, keep searching for a Blockbuster, turns out there isn't any in our area (.. maybe at all?) so we gave up and went home. But the second we got home, I was looking on KSL, Craigslist, Nickle Saver, shelters.. EVERYWHERE to find a puppy! We wanted a small one, just because of our situation right now, and Grandma said it was okay to have him outside.. (so don't tell her that we keep him inside..) and I was sooo sad because we couldn't find the right one. So we posted something on Facebook asking if anyone was giving away a small puppy, for free preferably, but we'd spend a little bit if necessary.


Then, Cody's cousin, Carmin, commented. I didn't even see it, my sister texted me and told me that someone said they had a puppy for us! Turns out, here dog had puppies, and they were trying to find homes for them. She was selling them for around $400, but the second I saw that, I realized it wasn't a possibility. But when she commented, she said she wasn't looking for money, just a good home for him. So we went and saw him on Sunday afternoon, fell in love, and picked him on on Monday! (After I bought all the necessities!)

Cody and I are both SO IN LOVE WITH HIM!! He is the cutest thing ever! I need to cut the hair that's in front of his eyes so he can see, but I want to wait until he's REALLY comfortable with us first.

Anyways, he's a Shih Tzu, 13 weeks old, and his name when we got him was Stryker, but he doesn't answer to it (and he doesn't look like a Stryker) so we're thinking of changing his name to Dexter (: I'll let you know if that name's the one that lasts, and I'm sure I'll be doing some "Dexter Diaries" posts on the blog now.. So look forward to getting to know him more!

Another sewing project!

 

I have had this vest for a while now, and although it is ADORABLE, I hardly ever wear it because it's way too long.. all they way over my butt? No thank you! So I got ready early yesterday, put it on, and was planning on taking it off when I left for school and thought.. "No! Just shorten it!" Duh. I should have done this the moment I bought it.

 So I took it up 2 inches across the entire bottom, sewed it with the most simple, basic stitch, and it already looks so much better!

Thumbs up for shorter vests!

And the front

 And it only took about 5 minutes! So I was able to keep it on for the rest of the day and be happy wearing it!

Be prepared to see a few more "shortening" posts because I have a few more items in my closet that really need the help!

Okay, I really do need to do homework..

But I just needed to share something. So I've been doing Project Life for a while now.. And I have been telling my Mom about it for almost the entire time I've been doing it. She is a huge scrapbooker, and despite her efforts of trying to convert me to a scrapbooker, it just never worked. I did my own thing with altered books (Taking a book, no matter what kind, and using it as your canvas. I probably bought this book for a couple of dollars at DI or something)..

Cover of the book

and I'm sure she was proud of me for expressing at least some sort of artistic ability, but it still wasn't scrapbooking. So I told her about Project Life, she was happy that I was documenting my life, but that's about all the response I got from her. Until two days ago.

She calls me up saying that a friend of hers came over to show her the PL album that she's been doing, and how it's such a cool thing, and that she wants to see my pages (and if you follow my blog regularly, you know that I post them on here when I finish them). So I told her just that, that they were on my blog, and she just needed to look at it. And after about 15 minutes of trying to help her figure out how to do it, SHE EXPLODED! She started saying how proud of me she was, how creative I was, how much effort it must have taken.. blah blah blah. (Also, if you know my mom, she tends to get really excited about these types of things, so when I never got this response in the first place from her, I was a little worried). Turns out she just never saw what I was doing (because she had my blog bookmarked, but it was on a specific post, so she thought I just never updated my blog) and I finally got the excitement that I've been looking forward to ever since I bought it and started this project.

I might sound a little.. conceited? Or something? When I say that I was disappointed when she didn't respond very excitedly, but you have to know that if you're a creative person and are married to a man that works on cars, hot tubs, homes.. things like that, you're hardly ever going to get a very excited response when you create something. And such has it been for the last 8 months haha. I love Cody, but he's just not able to see how amazing my crafty things are.. He related it to how if he showed me an engine he re-built and was talking about how much effort he put into it and how much he free-handed, it would still look like an engine to me. I thought that was a perfect example, so I stopped complaining. But that's why us girls have girl friends and mothers, right? To get the compliments that we know we deserve (:

Anyways, just wanted to say that.. My mom is finally on board with Project Life, and is planning on starting it. She's also trying to convince Kaylee to do it (which I tried too, but apparently nothing sounds very good when I suggest it, but a second party witness usually does the trick.) So Kaylee, START DOING PROJECT LIFE! MOM SAID YOU NEED TO!

Sewing Adventures!

So, this whole sewing thing is a COMPLETELY new adventure for me. I was given a Singer Simple sewing machine for Christmas last year, and I love it! It's so cute and perfect.. And since then, it's been either sitting on my craft desk (when I don't have other projects on there) or on the floor... Because I don't didn't know how to use it!

Twice in my life I've made pajama pants, one of those times was at a Young Women's activity (and I'm sure if you were ever in YW you did this too) and there were a million ladies helping out, and since I didn't want anything to do with it at the time, they ended up doing most of the work. Same with the second time, when I did it with my Aunt, except I did a little bit more than she did. Either way, both fit HORRENDOUSLY! I probably threw away my first pair, and sent the second one off to my boyfriend at the time.

So I saw this pin on Pinterest, and I thought it would be a good idea to do this to a huge shirt of mine, but I wasn't the biggest fan of how the shoulder seam was still so far down the arm when it was complete. So I mentioned it to my MIL and she offered to help me! I wanted to do it for Cody, because he doesn't have any work shirts because all the ones that his boss has are 2XL and Cody's a Small. So after lots of seam ripping, tracing, cutting, sewing machines breaking, and sewing, we finished his first shirt! I wish I had a before and after picture, but I don't.. Anyways, it wasn't great. It was too short, and the sleeves were too wide. So I had another huge workshirt of his, and I took off on this adventure on my own. AND IT WORKED SO WELL! I learned from my first time trying and made this shirt longer, the sleeves narrower, (which they still need to be more narrow) and my sewing machine only got fussy like twice!

Small on the left, 2XL on the right(which I still have to alter that one, along with 3 others as well!). 

This is for comparison. I'm so proud of myself!

Cody's co-worker and friend for a long time, told him that he was very impressed and he might want me to do some for him as well!

Braided Spaghetti Bread

This post is going to be super short because I still have to finish two homework assignments today. But I just wanted to inform the world (or those who don't already know about this amazingness) about the WONDERFULLY DELICIOUS Braided Spaghetti Bread!

Everyone likes spaghetti and garlic bread. EVERYONE. So why don't we ever make it like this? Yes, it takes a little bit longer, but my goodness, it's one of the best things ever!

I saw the recipe on Pinterest, of course, so I bought the stuff I'd need to make it and put it on the agenda!

Well, the recipe says to let the bread dough sit out for 2-3 hours to defrost at room temperature, but since I was at school from 12:30-8, I wasn't going to put it out all day, and by the time I got home, I only had about an hour until Cody would be home, so I defrosted it in the microwave. Well, my microwave thought I was trying to bake the bread apparently, so I had to sacrifice the ends, as they were already cooked when I took the bread out of the microwave. Oh well, it only needs to feed two of us. 

Yes, I started munching on the ends.. this bread is just too good not to!

So I rolled out the rest of the dough into a rectangular-ish thing (since I don't have a rolling pin, I had to use a square cup.. weird, right? But it actually kinda worked!) and after the 15 minutes that I was supposed to let it sit, I put in the spaghetti and meat and cheese, braided it oh-so-pretty like, added parmesan cheese, garlic powder & parsley, and this is what it looked like.

My cuts were much closer together and smaller than they suggest.. I didn't care about measurements, I was just starving!

And after being in the oven for about 30 minutes, it looked like this!

 It was so delicious! Cody absolutely loved it, and couldn't stop raving about it! Yum yum yum!!

So go here for the recipe/ingredients, go buy what you need, AND MAKE THIS BAD BOY!!