8 YEARS IN THE MAKING

On Friday my brother-in-law {Greg} and his gorgeous gal {Rachel} were married, and man was it sweet. They have been dating on and off for 8 years and as they put it, everyone had "written them off" and gave up hope that he would pop the question. I don't know what changed, and we on the outside may never know, but I was glad they waited until I joined the family so I could witness it. I'm now at that age where friends are getting married right and left and therefore I have just discovered I'm a wedding crier. I've always thought of myself as one tough cookie, but apparently happiness just makes these blue eyes soggy. For those of you who don't know, I have a 6th sense. I can look at someone and usually feel whatever emotion they are feeling. This is why I'm also a crier in movies because I ALWAYS put myself in the characters shoes and am overcome with the emotions that they are feeling. So it was no surprise to me that when I made eye contact with Rachel during the ceremony, I just lost it. I was overcome with how much relief and joy she was feeling. Have you ever waited for something for 8 years? Well if you haven't it makes the payoff that much sweeter, emotional, and unbelievable. Those happy tears were also due to the fact that she has overcome a really rough childhood and hard family life and yet has turned into one the funniest, and most talented people I have ever met. I can't express how happy I am for those two, especially when it comes to the future family vacations that are in store! Anyway, I didn't get many pictures, because I was too busy having a good time, but here are a few gems I managed to sneak, {and a few I stole from Rachel}.

^^Classic

^^This is not a photogenic moment, but it was the only one that showed the detail in her dress.

^^Their dog Chancho (represented by the Monopoly dog} was there at the wedding wearing a bow tie. He can be seen pacing around them during the first dance video at the end.

^^Me and my blurry sweety.

^^And of course no Greg and Rachel wedding would be complete without a musical number by them.

^^ Greg is 39. Hence "almost."

I tried to post my first Instagram video but I had no service and it didn't work and the video disappeared and of course Instagram won't let you re-post/post videos from your phone that are already recorded so I guess I'll just have to settle for posting it here. 

And I'm giving everyone a virtual hug to help you all get through Monday!! 

HOW TO SEW EASY PEASY DRAPES

So I'm no sewing expert, but if you can thread a machine and sew a straight line, then you are in luck because you can make these curtains. But seriously this may be a horrid tutorial that makes Tim Gunn himself want to jump off a building but if you have little to no sewing skills like me, then this is the tutorial for you!
Also, I promise I ironed them afterwards but the one on the left just didn't want to listen to me. 

 The curtains I needed were long and skinny. I didn't really want to be able to close them so they are just decorative drapes. Since I didn't need anything really wide, I folded the fabric in half to double it {at the bottom I tell you what to do if you don't have enough to fold in half}. I folded it inside-out {wrong sides together} and sewed a straight line down the side to sew them together likes so... 

 

If you are folding them in half like I did and are worried about your "straight line" skills, then you can also make this seam the back as well. Once that is done, flip it back the right way and it should look like this: 

Iron it so that this seam favors the back {if you are doing a side seam}, or if you are making the seem the back-center, then iron it according to that as well. 

After I sewed the side seam, I serged all the edges. You do not have to do this step. This is just so the material doesn't fray but your curtain shouldn't experience much wear and tear so you are fine to skip this step. 

 Now as far as hanging it I was debating whether to do the individual loops, or just fold it over and make one big loop. I went with the later because it sounded like less work. Evenly fold your fabric over on the top {based on how big you want the opening} and don't forget to make sure your rod fits through it. 

You may need pins to help you keep it in place but once you are done, press it really good with an iron. Now you have a nice crease and can simple sew the two pieces together with a simple straight line stitch. I'm sure you can use all kinds of fancy stitches. A double needle hem might look nice, but I just went for an old straight line again because I was using an old machine and "fancy" on it is too hard for me. Now, basically you would do the same thing for the hem, but lucky for me my curtains fall behind my couch and no one can see them so I didn't hem the bottom.

If your fabric is just barely wide enough for your window and you are not folding it in half like I did, just make a tiny hem running down both sides of the curtain and sew it so that you have clean edges. If you don't want a stitch showing, then use fabric tape. And for those who don't sew at all, you can really use fabric tape or fabric glue in place of stitches on the drapes and they will look almost as good.

Ta-Da!

P.S. I lied about Google getting ride of the "join this site bottom." I found it! So sadly if you followed my last post and entered in your email address it will still not add you to the site. So be a friend and click that blue botton on the right hand side and follow me! I will be eternally greatful!

COMING SOON...

Alright so I'm way excited to announce something that probably wont happen for another month. My blog is getting a face lift. I'm doing a redesign on the whole thing {aka paying someone to design it}, including a name change. My blog has been in need of some formatting for quite some time but I just haven't had the time or the skills. I also hope to be posting more and {fingers crossed} I hope to have a nice camera by the end of the summer so that I'm not just posting camera phone pictures every post. I'm also very excited to start posting more often because I always feel like I have so much to share and say. Anywho, if any of you have any ideas or cute color schemes or blog titles {although I think I already know what I'm going to name it}, or want to suggest blogs that you love the style of so I can check them out, please post below. There are so many formats and ways you can set up a blog so picking and choosing which tabs to include and how to lay it all out can be stressful. 

Also, if you love me please follow me. There is a little "join this site" button on the right side where you can follow this blog. I mean come on... NONE of my sisters follow me and yet I know they all read this {and several of my best friends} haha. But in all fairness I wont get mad at you for not following and just stalking, I'll just give you death stares... thats all. Welp, here is to the future and to the future or my re-designed blog coming soon. 

In the meantime, I hope this sexy picture of Spencer can get you through the next few weeks until my blog is also equally as sexy. 

PARADE OF HOMES: PART 2

So I may just have to make 3 parts to this because I spent this entire post talking about one house. This house one one of me and Spencer's top 2. It was open, gorgeous, and had impecable design. Ladies and gentleman, I introduce you to dream house number 2:

^^I didn't get a picture of the back but it's actually bigger then it looks because the back of the house drops off a small cliff/hill so that the basement floor is level to the ground and has a walk out patio. 

{This picture stolen from Kristen Krason's Instagram. Undecided it was much better quality then the picture I took} 

^^Amazing deck and view out those glass windows.

^^Even though I would probably change the lighting in the living room, the one thing I loved about them is they were totally DIY. They were made of wood and cardboard and similar pendants were through-out the whole house. 

^^I'm obsessed with exposed brick so naturally I was in paradise!

^^Behind this fridge was a tiny hallway with a giant custom made magnet board and pin board {below}.

^^Don't worry, those are protective booties Spencer is wearing and not the new style of shoes. 

Let's go back to the main level for a second now:

^^The master bed was phenomenal. Definitely not every one's taste, but the design of it was breath taking and you could tell it was totally custom. 

^^Floating fireplace in the master

^^The door dividing the bathroom and master, was a fun sliding barn door that doubled as a giant mirror! 

^^Another cardboard DIY light, and a tub that I envy.

^^Laundry/Craft room

^^Cute wood half-bath

Now let me take you to the basement for a bit: 

^^On the landing of the basement stairs was this cool/giant window that went to the floor. 

^^Now two kitchens is the new trend but I only really like them if there is a theater {because who wants to go upstairs to get your movie snacks}! Luckily this house did have a theater but it was sadly unfinished so I didn't take any pictures :(. Womp womp. But once again, notice the open shelving! Such a nice touch to a small kitchen. The cool thing about the house though, was that the basement mirrored the main floor. Notice the kitchen, and the living room below...

^^... the fireplace mimics the one above as if it is coming through the floor and the mantel is one giant piece. 

^^And another table mimicking the one above.Most of these houses are just set up with "staged furniture," while others have already been bought but not yet moved into, and their furniture is already in the house {usually picked out by an interior designer}. I think this home was staged {but I don't know for sure} because obviously no one needs 2 living rooms and 2 dining tables. If I was to design this, I would leave the kitchen but turn the rest of the area into a game room with a pool table, ping pong table, Foosball table, and whatever else my heart desired. This way the kitchen would prove more suitable as a "snack" station for when your kids have friends over. 

^^Obsessed with this paneling. I love that they keep with the wood sub-theme all throughout the house but use different types and shades. 

^^One wall in the downstairs bedroom of just brick.

^^The doors to every room were also cool and unique.

Alright... back upstairs we go:

^^So this is right when you get upstairs. They made a little homework/lounge area out of wood. I wish I had taken a closer picture but under the homework sign, are fun hanging terrariums and a homemade corkboard. You could tell the the designers did a lot of DIYing in this house which was cool. 

^^On the left is this fun little reading nook.

^^Another bedroom

Alright, so my favorite part was a total surprise. After we went through the house, we had to exit out the garage, and low and behold on the other side of the garage {see picture 2 of exterior} there was a guest room with it's own bathroom and mini kitchen! 

Anyway it was an awesome house and I highly recommend going to the parade of homes. It's such a fun date night. For all my Salt Lake friends, the Salt Lake one is in August so watch for that. There are around 20 homes and it goes for 2 weeks so if you don't have time to go to them all, then make the ones over $700k your priority because those will wow you the most. There is still a week left for the Utah Valley Parade so go check this house out and buy it for me for a cool $950,000 {but that includes the lot price if that makes you feel better}.