becoming what I always was

Friday Driving

2012-02-11T19:22:00.001-07:00

I was driving home from work yesterday during rush hour. Rush hour makes my normal half hour drive into at least over an hour. It gives me a lot of time to sing loudly to myself, laugh loudly to howard stern and also sit and think. I was listening to my 2000's station and I heard the song second chance by shinedown. I literally started bawling in the car instantly. It made me feel happy and sad at the same time. I felt like he was sing to me about Landon, telling me that saying good bye to him was letting him have his second chance. Here's a little more background on landon, but if you want the summary: Landon was Jared's best friend, they were in a band together, we hung out all the time, and he was actually the reason I met Jared. He past away on new years eve 2011 from a drug overdose. It's been a tough year trying to go on dealing with such a huge loss in Jareds life and mine. I can't tell you how many nights Jared is playing guitar in bed, and we both just start to tear up thinking about Lando, or how many time we are listening to our iPods at work or on vacation and we have to shuffle past songs from their band, because it still hurts too bad to listen.

My mind went astray, but here are the lyrics that made me burst into tears:

Second Chance

My eyes are open wide
And by the way, I made it
Through the day
I watched the world out
by the way, I'm leaving out today

I Just saw haley's comet.
She waved, "Why are you always running in place?"
Even the man on the moon disappeared
somewhere in the stratosphere

Tell my mother, Tell my father
I've done the best I can.
To make them realize
This is my life
I hope they understand
I'm not angry, I'm just saying..
Sometimes
Goodbye is a Second Chance

Please don't cry one tear for me
I'm not afraid of what I have to say,
This is my one and only voice
So listen close, it's only for today

Tell my mother, Tell my father
I've done the best I can.
To make them realize
This is my life
I hope they understand
I'm not angry, I'm just saying..
Sometimes
Goodbye is a Second Chance

[Then it repeats a few times]

The part where it says sometimes goodbye is a second chance, just lifts and sinks my heart at the same time. I feel like it is so incredibly hard for us to say bye to Landon, but he was struggling so incredibly hard, that sometime goodbye is a second chance.

Bye Lando & here's to your second chance!

you have to look closely, but we are al releasing balloons in the air with things we wrote on them for lando to read when they reach him. His mom & sister set this up to celebrate his life, it was one year from the day he passed away.

Instagram Knock Off

2012-02-10T11:21:00.001-07:00

I am a jealous human. I get so incredibly jealous when I see all these freaking awesome iPhone users using that instagram app. Their pictures are so adorably cute. I love apple everything. I seriously am one of those people. I have always been on a mac computer, my dad was a graphic designer, and always had macs in our home. I am a newly promoted jr. designer and everything at work and home is an apple computer, software, and everything else. Anyway, I still haven't made the jump (price wise) over to the iPhone. Here I am stain here all vulnerable with just me and my droid. Yesterday I spent too much time looking for acceptable knock off apps. The two I actually liked were:

Photofunia
and
PicsArt

I messed around with both. They really do have very similar features. You can even directly upload them to Picasa, Flickr, Facebook and email and text your new photo creations, which of course I did… a lot. Anyway Here is my consensus. I like PicsArt more, because it is more geared toward effects and collages. While Photofunia is like taking a photo you already have and putting it on a different background. Like those goofy subway poster, NY art galleries and things like that. So I made the two pictures below with PicsArt. I haven't deleted Photofunia off my phone yet, but it may happen. Sorry PF!

This is my Jared and Shia Photostrip =)

and.. here is my miki collage. so miki.

Good Dealin'

2012-02-08T11:48:00.001-07:00

I seriously want to tell any of you, that if you need a good deal. Just call me. I might be really scatter brained and a goof most of the time, but when it comes to bargain shopping it is kind of my main squeeze. When I go to bargain stores looking for throw pillows or house decor I seriously will debate in my head if it's worth $5.. and if it is over $12, no way! =)

Anyway, my story was that we needed a sofa for our front room. I wanted a 3 person light colored sofa. I thought it would look so awesome with out new floors. For about 3 days. I got onto KSL looking for something under $400. I didn't necessarily want to put work into redoing it or trying to make it settable, and I didn't think this was too much to ask. For the first 2 days I would see something every now and again, but nothing worth buying. I called on maybe 2, and talked myself out of it by the end of the phone call.

Then Friday. Oh glorious Friday. I found a set, love seat and sofa for $350. I really really did not want a set, because the room is smaller. But 350!!! I had Jared call (I suck at negotiating) and offer $250 for just the sofa. The guy must have wanted them gone, because he said lets do $280 for both. Can you say no to that? No! Well here are the sofas. Perfect colored, no rips, no tears, no stains, no smoke smell and they're microfiber =)

good deal number 1

My second good deal of the week is lamps. I am always in love with the lamps at hobby lobby, but the cheapest decent sized goreous lamp I have seen is $70. I needed 2 for our nightstands, and would not spend $140! One day they had the back corner dedicated to clearance. I actually found 2 of the same lamps in the clearance section. It was not easy and I probably spent over half an hour. One was marked down to $15 (it need a new screw in the base that was missing), one was marked down to $24 (it was missing the nut that kept the shade steady). Of course, I bought them because $39 for 2 is an awesome deal. What do you think? They are pretty nice and heavy duty too.

Last of all, Monday I wasn't feeling too hot. I slept in and cuddled with my puppy. I am so grateful for her. Whenever I am having a bad day she can cheer me up, she can cuddle me and make me feel so loved and she honestly is the best pup I could have asked for. (Sorry the picture is blurry)

One blogs name

2012-02-06T18:39:00.001-07:00

I have come across tons of blogs that I love. Many time what draws me in is the name. Some of them are just plain creative these two I love simple and sweet:

Hollywood Housewife

The chronicles of Elsha Rae

Little Girl in a Big World (which I adored the second I read it )

Then there are some that tell you exactly what you are going to read such as

Vintage Revivals

All things Thrifty

Mickie Dee Artistry

My question is, I would love to name my blog more than miki. My blog focuses on two main things stories of my life, and DIY projects that I do. I would love to incorporate both of those things, but haven't thought of anything that sticks.

Any ideas?

I seriously can't decide anything, and I know most of these suck but I must brain vommit..

The reason I need to do this now is.. I found out my blog is being featured in the beginning of March! I need to send over all this information by Feb. 27th! I really want something that people will read and say "let's go check that out!" Help help help!

Brainstorming here:

memoirs of a miki
journals from miki
miki's big picture
learning from the best
surprise ending
making a metaphor
nothing but myself
Becoming what I always was

FREE Pallette's

2012-02-03T12:54:00.001-07:00

I thought I would share this post, FREE palettes on KSL in Salt Lake City. The reason I got so extremely excited about this is because there are so many insanely great things on Pinterest, and other sites that you can do with Pallette wood.

Like These:

FREE (items only, no businesses) Classifieds for Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming | ksl.com: ""

(Via .)

So come and get them!

Useless Rooms

2012-02-02T11:28:00.001-07:00

I need some help deciding what to do with my front/ entry room. Here is my issue; the natural thing to do with this room is to make is a "sitting" room. But no one truly ever uses those. They sit there and look pretty. Before we put the new floors in there was a pool table in this room, which is now downstairs in our adult play room. I have thought about making it an office room, but I am not sure that will get used a whole lot either. I do need a place to put my printer, silhouette, and crafting thingy ma bobs, but if I did that in the front room it would need to be hidden or I would probably go nuts. Any advice? What have you see?

Working on it.

2012-02-01T12:37:00.001-07:00

I am terribly working on putting my house back together this week. It was one thing for the floors to be such a huge project, but putting all the appliances back together and trying to make the furniture look better than before is a whole different story! I spent all last night cleaning our kitchen area, and tonight I tackle the front room! Anyone want to help?

Some of my favorites photos

2012-01-31T16:20:00.000-07:00

For our wedding, we had the best photographer in the world. There are so many photos I am in love with. Sometimes I look over them time and time again, because sometimes I want to put them in my house, but can't decide.
P.S.
Here's more wedding posts
DIY ideas
Photos by Josh rossi
Custom Peacock Bottoniere
Final touches
Facts of a love day

Floor Reveal!

2012-01-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

Are you guys sick of hearing about my floors yet? I hope not, because they just barely are done! I seriously can't get enough of them. I have to give a shout out to my parents, because they spent 2 full weekends at my house ripping up tile, pulling up carpet, prying up tack strips, wrestling staples out of the floor, laying down floor pads, cutting the new floors, and of course installing them. They were right there with Jared and I the entire time. So mad props to some awesome parents. They even put up with Shia licking them, crop dusting, and more un-lady like things. She's an angel.

Drum Roll Please!

Front Room Before, During, After:

My camera must have had a dirty lens, but look at those beautiful FLOORS! I am so in love. This was the first room we finished working from about 5pm - 1:30am on Friday.

Then we moved to the kitchen

Here is our dining room with the upstairs crowded on in:

Don't those doors look so gorgeous, plus my dad.

Last piece I have for you is our Hallway:

I'm sorry my floors aren't clean of the saw dust yet, but I was too excited and had to post pictures!

If you missed any of my leading up posts here they are:

floor choices

kitchen details

Floor brainstorming

WhichFLOORScouldiCHOOSE

2012-01-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

My life has been out of control this past week. Let me give you insight into why I say this. I am living without a dishwasher with 3 males and 3 dogs! (not that dogs use dishes)... but our entire upstairs has been torn apart due to our floor makeover. We live in a town home and our entire upstairs including furniture, appliances, drawers, cabinets and such are ALL squished into a 8x10 foot space. Also walking on our floors gives us splinters. Which is never fun. But I am willing to give up all my comforts to have new floors. You wonder why.. well here's one reason they look like this:

They're completely matted and stained everywhere beyond repair ( I know this because my FIL owns a carpet cleaning business and has tried EVERYTHING)

So as you may know we ripped up all the preexisting tile and all the carpet in 3 rooms. Our front room, kitchen, and our dining area. We decided to replace it with one of these:

Wednesday we actually picked up the flooring, and then started laying it last night! If that doesn't make you excited, you may not have a soul, because remember I have splinter feet! Also do you know how loud little dog claws are on this floor. Way loud.

We started laying the floors last night in our front room (yes a pool table in our front room)...

side note.. I'd love this room to look somewhat like this one day: Office slash sitting area.

So here is a little umph to me spending the rest of the weekend laying floors! Maybe knocking out a wall downstairs =)

Color Dilemma

2012-01-25T13:03:00.000-07:00

I have had a fight within myself the past couple months. I have seen a lot of outfits floating around on pinterest that are brown and black. I remember being taught that brown and black do not match! They were enemies in the eyes of the fashionista! But today I wore brown shoes and black pants....

What do you think do they match?

{yes I was spinning on a chair at work when this was taken}

shoes - charolette russe - $35

pants - fox jeans - dillards - $7

socks - forever 21 (who knows?)

Kitchen Details

2012-01-17T11:08:00.000-07:00

My mission this year is to re-do our upstairs completely.

We are currently working on our kitchen.

We FINALY saved up enough money to redo our floors.

(learn more in this post)

I am kind of all over the place when it comes to this, because I love so many styles. Jared is already the king of indecisive, so when I can't make a decision we are stuck. However I am trying so hard to get the floors all the way in before Valentines. Just a personal goal.

We just barely put in the backsplash of our dreams. It is so beautiful, and if I could I would do everything in copper. I love love times a million copper. I dream about it. This is our first step to the big makeover

This was taken before we grouted, and switched the outlets to black, but I think you can see the color of the tile way better here.

This is completed. It has dark brown grout (the darkest you can buy at Home Depot). We didn't like the white outlets, so Jared put in all new ones around the whole wall that are black. They look really good with all the stainless steel.

Eventually I want to do 2 colors of cabinets. I want our island to be one color and then the kitchen cabinets to be different color. Like these Kitchens:

and

I want these countertops

stamped concrete

But for now our kitchen looks like like this, the picture was taken at link 7am, so it's awful lighting. But at least you can see the layout. We are trying to in the next 2 weeks get new floors which would be for the whole upstairs. Check that post out HERE, because I need help deciding. QUICK!

Kitchen Floors!

2012-01-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

Our kitchen. Our wonderful kitchen. I actually really love our kitchen, I hate our floors. We have very cheap carpet. The house is only like 6 years old, and the carpet has taken a mean beating. Since forever Jared and I have talked about getting hardwood floors or laminate wood, because it is such a high traffic area that the carpet can't handle. For about a year we've been looking into what we would want and our ideas have changed a lot.

First it was this; super dark and wide planks.

Then I thought it wouldn't match our cabinets that well which is this, plus it would be really hard to keep clean. We have some really dark furniture and it is the worst! I have to dust it all the freakin time. Not too mention my puppy, who is white and sheds.

Now I have a few more ideas. This is one that I am in love with. I love the streaks and movement. What do you think too much? Keep in mind this is a picture of a magazine, so it is little darker, but definitely not the espresso dark as before.

Next is my absolute favorite, I have ever seen, but I just don't think it would match our kitchen at all. I do plan to do a larger makeover than just the floors, but this might be too country for Jared.

Our Current Kitchen looks like:

The color is bad, but you get the idea. Also there was tons of stuff I quickly photoshopped off the counters, so that a why this looks like well that. ha ha.

Just a side note, the wood will go across the entire upstairs that you can see (there a dining room I am in taking the picture and also a front room where our dog is headed.)

Should the tile go or stay?

I NEED advice, help me out!

Also check out THIS post about the future kitchen I envision that I think you should look at to help me decided.

give me advice. this is a huge decision.

What if...

2012-01-12T11:23:00.000-07:00

I decide to give you... free switch plate covers.

there's a catch, sorry

and, tell me if this is a good idea?

{first}follow my blog and {second}leave me a comment on what which switch plate is your ABSOLUTE most favorite {third} Pin the give away.

from this post

I am going to draw 2 names from the comments section on 1/19/12

1st winner: gets 6

2nd winner gets 4

3rd winner gets 2

(outlet or switch)

Then I will make and ship them to you... for free.

Good deal?

remember these beautiful ones:

(my favorite)

I remade every switch plate and outlet cover in my entire house. I am seriously in love. It helps transform the whole room, plus those plan white ones are hideous, such an eye sore. Did you just redecorate a room for a guest? baby? or your master? Add some flare!

For real. I'll love you forev!

christmas.break.revealed

2012-01-11T11:43:00.000-07:00

This is more of a picture does the talking type of post. Jared and I had a busy break after and around Christmas. We were bummed about not going to Mexico, so we decided to take a mini-vacation. We had off Monday through Friday. Jared planned everything, and kind of told me some things to pack, and away we went.

Shia wasn't allowed at this cabin, so she stayed at Doggy Daycare over night. From Monday to Tuesday we stayed in Wyoming at this sweet cabin. We had pretty much an entire apartment to ourself. I wish I took more pictures, but I didn't.

Our back porch

Sitting inside on the couch but the fire in our jammies.

The next morning we got up and went snow moiling for a few hours.

We saw a moose.

Tuesday night we picked up Shia, and went to our next destination which we stayed at for the rest of the week. It was this awesome hotel that had 2 floors! There was a loft room upstairs and then the kitchen/living room/ bathroom were all downstairs. I am pretty sure this room was haunted.

On wednesday we drove to Tooele for my Grandma Grace's funeral. It was so beautiful. I always feel like funerals are nice. They help you have closure, and remember all these wonderful things about the person who passed instead of all the sad cloudy thoughts about their death.

We drove back to Park City for the night. Went out to dinner where we saw Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds at Zoom. Which ended our wonderful Park City trip.

Jared's best friend passed away on New Years Eve of 2011 (read more here and here). It was the most heart breaking thing that Jared and I have ever dealt with. It's hard to have family go, but when it's their time, and they are much older it's easier to understand. It's harder when you're best friend who is in his early 20's passes. This is still a very prominent thing in our relationship. We think about Lando all the time. Jared wasn't able to physically have his best friend at our wedding. His music suffered for a long time after landon's passing. But for this new years eve's eve. Landon's sister put together a memorial. This was so wonderful. We all had balloons and with glowsticks in and on them, and we wrote messages to Lando on them. Then we released them into the night. It was a very very peaceful thing. I think it made us all emotional to think of sending our wishes up to heaven for Lando.

Video of the real easing of the balloons that Nick Smith took.

New Years Eve.

We went to Brant and Betsy's and let off lanterns into the night's sky.

We went to Poblar's after.

It was my favorite Eve so far of my life!

Switch Plate Covers

2012-01-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I am MAKING & GIVING away these for FREE for 3 peeps. Link over here to see how to be a winnnnner!

I absolutely love the small things in houses. They are what make me fall in love with spaces. Forever and Ever I have had 2 obsessions; switch plate cover and knobs. I always want to have really funky ones that just help bring that extra umph to the space.

I kind of made up a technique with a little researching, and decided to make my own covers. These are the ones I made. What do you think?

I think these last 2 are my absolute favorite.

If you're interested in making your own or knowing how I did, then leave me a comment and I'll post a step by step tutorial.

Closet Transformer!

2012-01-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time we had the worst closet ever! We own a Garbett Home, and mostly I love it, but they use wire shelving for everything, and that I HATE! It is cheap and awful for a closet. It sucks because, it has notches so your clothes don't slide, they always get stuck. The "shelves" are wire, so anything small or like jewelry holder will fall through the slots. It basically had 2 rows across the closet, and that sucked for Jared and I.

We decided to use the Martha Stewart DIY closets that you find at home depot to shape a new closet to work for both of it. It seriously has changed my entire life.

(not our closet, but pretty mush what it looked like before - 2 rows and shelves in the middle)

The Closets leave tons of holes, and they're pretty big

I was showing that my side of the closet as a huge slant. So it was hard to find something to work around that since we could use shelves at the bottom.

The cool thing about this closet. You can switch it as you decide what works best, the wood pieces slide along one metal pieces on the back, but once you have all the rods/ shelves/ drawers in they won't move at all. It is an easy install for everything. this is how I started, but switched after i decided what features I wanted. The other cool thing it that the lengths are standard, so you don't have to buy expensive drawers at home depot, you can go to ikea and get cheap ones.

It was tough figuring out my shoes, but this is how I did them. My heels are on a Shelf, then I have a sliding hamper to pile in all the others. I have a drawer for bra's and undies, then another shelf for hats, some jewelry and lotions.

I was trying to show my set up.

Left: 2 rows of hanging clothes

Center: one row hanging - shelf - drawer - shelf - shoe hamper

Right: 2 rows of hanging clothes

Jared has a whole other set up, because he doesn't need as much hanging space, so his entire center is open. He has 2 shelves at the top, pants folded, and 3 shoe racks

We decided not to put anything on our back wall and leave it open so we could actually go in the back of our closet. It really made our closet seem so much bigger!

Forgotten.Favorites

2012-01-03T16:02:00.000-07:00

2011 was a really busy year for me. I just started getting into the whole DIY genre of my life.

These are some of the projects that I resurrected from the dead?

One of my favorites:

Mr. Lamp.

I found this lamp at the DI, he's actually pretty tall, and cost me about $3. I decided to make him a little more unique. I translated the song we danced to at our wedding into dutch (DeMann is a dutch name, that's Jared's ancestry). I printed the translation off in a font that I liked, and then free handed it onto the lamp shade. The sticker in the middle, are mine and Jared's silhouettes.

The golden turkey. I made a turkey outline with my Silhouette machine, and then put in on some canvas and spray painted it orange first, let it dry and then brown from Krylon's glitter blast line. It turned out to be an awesome bronze. loved it!

For the wedding, I etched glass. I was trying to make glasses for Jared and I to toast with. We didn't end up using them, but it's still one of my favorite projects. I made an outline with silhouette, and then used glass etching cream. It was pretty easy, and they are cute. It's hard to get a good picture though.

Shuttle stop sign.

Scrapbook paper, vinyl from the silhouette to make letters and words.

Then I modge podged peacock feathers to the frame.

So easy. So cute.

An awfully beautiful Christmas

2011-12-31T15:50:00.000-07:00

I thought my title was compelling. Didn't you? Worked pretty hard on it. Awful and Beautiful don't commonly belong together. However, this is the perfect way to describe how the past few weeks of my life has been. I have moaned and groaned a lot this year, about not being able to hit up the Mexican home that I love so dearly with my family. This tradition is something I look forward to every year. I start making lists in July of things I want to do down there December, months before December I am scavenging the Internet to find more fun activities, or things to do there. Not only does my family go, but my ENTIRE family is down there. Seriously all the Loveless' and their friends, and their friends. Usually there is between 100- 200 people down there that are all for our reunion. It is out of control, and the most fun anyone has ever had. Guaranteed.

This year I wasn't going to experience any of that, I was going to have to see my family post pictures and tell stories for the rest of the year that I don't get to be a part of. It seriously broke my heart. The worst part was that during this holiday season where you have so much time off of work to spend with family, I didn't have my family. I couldn't call them, they couldn't email me. For the past 3 weeks, I have spoken to my momma 3 times, my dad and brothers only once.

Aside from this, I was also excited to be able to have a few days off work to be with Jared, and just do our thang. We did do a lot of things too. We started our own traditions, we hung out with great friends, drank lots of cocoa, and spent time with his family. It really was becoming a balance of sad and happy. I would be so happy, but then sad that I wasn't in Mexico doing what I have done every year for my whole life. It was seriously a tear of emotions.

With some friends at temple square

Christmas drew closer, and our presents under our tree in our wonderfully decorated house (we even had

our kitchen cupboards hanging Christmas lights) grew larger. A feeling of Christmas jitters took over, I was so excited to open presents that Jared and I got for each other. We really spoiled each other this year. It's pretty much the only year we have been together that we've had extra cash flow around this time of year. We even went out and got Shia present, so she would have a few to open on Christmas. She loves opening presents.

Shia opening presents

Then something awful happened. My great grandma passed away on my mom's birthday. December 22nd. It was really hard to deal with this. I had such a hard time, because I was incredibly alone. I woke up upset, because I couldn't call my mom on her birthday, nor could I participate in going to Panama (restaurant in Mazatlan) that we go to each year for her birthday and get the french toast. Later that day I got a text letting me know my grandma was doing really poorly. She was extremely old, but that doesn't make it much easier to deal with. My real grandma passed on my mom's side when I was very young after losing a long battle to cancer. So my great grandma Grace was my maternal Grandma. I called her Grandma, and she came to graduations, birthdays, celebrations, and she was always there bring a grandma. During this time I had no way of getting ahold of my family. I was frantically emailing/ texting/ calling even though I knew that they'd only see any emails if they would get the patchy Internet to work. My grandma passed around 5pm, and I was devastated, but I also was so concerned that my mom would find out through Facebook if she happened to log on, before seeing my emails. That is what I couldn't stand to happen. I finally received a call from my mom around 11pm, and after I told her everything I knew. We both just cried on the phone. There was no way she could get back form the funeral. I had to handle that passing of my grandma without the shield of my parents. It was really hard. It is still really hard. My parents and family still aren't back in the US, but they are coming and I cannot wait to just see their cute faces.

Come Christmas Eve Jared and I went on and did his families traditions, went to Grandpa and Ma DeMann's for an Eve party with all the aunts and uncles and cousins. Even though it wasn't what I was used to, it was so wonderful to be surrounded by family again. We talked, joked, smirked and played games which seriously almost put out 5 eyes. PVC pipes and foam darts can be pretty dangerous. I found out some cousins are expecting and other are getting married. It is such a fun family to be part of. It helped ease some of the loss and pain that I was bundling up inside me. We cam home, and decided Shia, Jared and I could open presents, then we also gave our roommates their presents. Jared told me this story about how when the power would go out when he was little it was his favorite time. Everyone would light candles, and play games that they made up and you were forced to sit and talk and entertain one another by interacting. He wanted to kill the power in our house from the time we got home from the grandparents until we fell asleep to almost humble ourselves and so we'd spend time together. It was such a great idea. I was a little nervous thinking, what would we do without power! But we lit tons of candles. I think we had over 20 upstairs. We cheated a little because we muted the TV, but had it on the fireplace station, so that it helped set the mood. We talked about Christmas traditions, about my grandma grace, about Mexico, about growing up with all his siblings, and everything else you can think about and then we decided to read a book out loud to each other, and take turns reading. We read "My booky wook" by Russel Brand. It was the perfect Christmas Eve.

blow darts at chrsitmas eve

Our roomies presents

Justin, with the most awful face on, in front of our tree.

Laughter opening his present.

I was decorating Justin's dog, duke. Wearing the cutest scarf, my bff Ellen got me.

Jare on the Ever reading by candlelight.

Christmas was hard. We went over to Jared's families at 8am in our pajamas, and opened present with everyone and had a delicious breakfast. Once again it was nice to be with family, but it did make me miss mine. I imagined them on the beach doing the traditional Christmas Skits with the big potluck dinner, then after going boogie boarding together. Even though there is no snow here this year, it's still not the beach! After the DeManns, we came home. Our eyes were exhausted, but the sun wasn't all the way up yet, and so we decided to open our presents. Which was a blast. Jared was so stoked on all his presents, so was I. I am so lucky, because that kid can seriously pick out clothes that are cuter than I can. I am constantly wearing things he bought me and am always getting compliments. He even bought me shoes, what boy can pick out cute shoes? Jared! My favorite gift that I gave him was a carry on suitcase. Jared has a compulsive personality, where he gets something stuck in his head and can't stop thinking about it. For reasons unknown he has been obsessing over carry-ons. We don't go anywhere, but he wanted one so bad. I had been on many many MANY shopping adventures where we spend half and hour unzipping all the pockets and strolling them around the store. Probably pissing off tons of salesman, wasting their time. I found one that was reasonably priced, and had to get it for him. I don't know why he wanted it. I don't know when he will use it, but he looked as happy as a 5 year old girl, who just got a pony. After we opened presents, we decided it was due time for a nap. He strolled his new suitcase in, and set it right next to the bed, and seriously had his hand on it while we were napping. The kid is cute. It was a good gift, because after Christmas we decided to take a 4 vacation. Which Jared had planned and left it all as a surprise. That's the next post!

Our nephew colt giving me a present, and opening it for me, then doing the same for everyone else

The mess at Jared's parents, notice also the fireplace channel.

Our mess after mine and Jareds christmas.

some presents on the counter

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and are ready for a new year! =)

Miss you already!

Miki

Christmas Carol

2011-12-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs a little Christmas cheer to help bring in the season. Jared had emailed me one afternoon and asked if I would want to see a Christmas carol play with him. Of course I said yes. I had never seen it, but I always love the opportunity to go on dates with Jared. Especially when he dresses up. That man is so handsome.

We got there and apparently Jared had reserved our tickets a month in advance. Which meant we were able to get front row seats, this is incredible because my eyes are so bad. I seriously can't see the time if I am wearing a watch, that's how awful they are.

This play is INCREDIBLE. My heart melted, because the story is so sweet. Everyone is familiar with it, but this play transports you into the story. I would hope everyone can see it once this year. The emotions that come to you during this play are so amazing. You feel happy, sad, funny and just overall grateful. I walked out of Hale Center Theatre, so grateful for my life, my health, my marriage, family. It was a great experience.

Also as a note. Jared surprised me with that new sweater dress just so I could dress up for the play. He's awesome.

This is me letting you know we are on row one.

Vase Makeover

2011-12-20T22:36:00.000-07:00

I love vases... mostly because I love sticks. I can only have sticks in my house when they are in a vase. Could you imagine walking into someones house and there are just sticks, like a bushel of sticks. That would crack me up, but also probably something I would do, and then Jared would help me realize that is not very awesome.

I originally got this idea from Mandi over at vintage revivals, her vase is a lot more technical than mine. But the basics came from her idea. Here is hers (Click the picture for the link).

Lately I have been lovin me some twine and burlap. I just love the natural scheme of it all, plus it goes well with blue and teal which I also want to paint everything right now. Anyway. I was decorating for Thanksgiving and decided on the colors brown, red and gold/yellow. I went to the DI and bought about 5 or 6 vases for about 3 dollars. I twined two of them. I sadly did not have a camera at this point in my life, so I just have after pictures. But I will explain the steps for you. It is pretty easy and not time consuming at all. Each vase took me about 20 minutes.

You need a glue gun, vase, and twine.
Start by putting a ring of glue at the bottom of the vase, the glue will dry super fast so hurry and lay down your first ring of twine.

You want to wrap the twine really tight and just keep circling the vase. About every 10 wraps I would do a dab of glue (I only did a full ring at the bottom to create a "barrier" for the twine, the rest of the time I would just put a dab - it looks cleaner this way too). That's seriously all you do.

If you have a bottle neck vase then it's easier to start at the top, because around the neck it is hard go up, much easier to twine down. What do you think?

(I also made that frame, and it's one of my favorite decorations; so whimsical and fun)

wonderments

2011-12-19T23:31:00.000-07:00

Do any of you feel like you life is better, when you come to your blog and people comment and post? I read tons of blogs that have like 6000000000 followers, and seriously like 70-200 comments on each post. I just wonder what draws people to those blogs. My blog is more of a fun blog that tells about my life, not teaching you anything. Except maybe how to be awesome.

Anyway in a long drawn out way, I am asking you. What do you like about my blog? What would you like to see more of on here? When you blog raid me, do you like pictures? stories? gossip? music?

Please tell me. Please! comment. even if i have never met you or barely talk in real life or if we're frenemies. Just please help me out. I beg of you.

Seasoned Season!

2011-12-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

You know how in the summer there is so much going on? It seems like every night someone is calling, asking you to do something. Like boating, hikes, swimming, biking, going out to lunch, heading to the gateway, seriously so much goes on! As soon as Winter comes around and it comes to a dead halt! This year I decided any opportunity that presented itself, I would do. So Jared and I have only started our Winter fun, but so far we have..

We went to the Zoo Lights. If you haven't done this, you really need to! It is gorgeous, they did an excellent job this year. Plus if you get the plastic cup of hot chocolate, then it is free refills all night long! yum yummy!

I planned my work Christmas party. Here we all are holding our white elephant gifts.

We had fake Christmas with the Loveless family, since they left to Mexico on the 14th. Lucky villains. I am so extremely upset that I am not going this year. I like to reminisce on years past, like last year and the year before. Next year I vow to go!

After all this craziness took place, we decided to have a puppy play date with our friends Chris and Ashley. They live out in Roy, so we take turns driving to one an other's house when we want to hang out. They just got a new puppy that is a pit bull/ terrier mix, and anyone who knows my puppy knows she just wants to play all the time. She never wears down! They said their pup was a good match for her. So we let them play and play and play! Eventually they wore down, and Shia decided to sleep under their Christmas tree.

Day in my life.

2011-12-12T16:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for a while, and I apologize. Things have been nutty in my life. Good nutty, but just chaotic. It is funny to me that during the times when life is so busy that I forget to document all the fun or weird things that happen during the busy periods. I tend to write a lot during those slow months.

Anyway. This is more of a storyboard post. I read on some blog that this girl took pictures throughout her day to describe her real day. I decided to mimic the idea. I totally spaced the blog, but when I find her post. I will link it up here...

I took so many pictures, but then decided I only like a few. (Most of my day is at work, and I took about 20 different angles of my desk... very interesting I know.)

At this point, everyone should be well aware, that I am overly obsessed with Shia. I wake up to this cute face every morning. She tries so hard to wake up, but usually end up falling back asleep. She army crawls across the whole bed without opening her eyes.

Jared and I usually share the bathroom trying to get ready in the morning. We both leave close to the same time. This picture is very inaccurate, because I am so grumpy in the mornings, but you can't help but to laugh when you're taking kissing pictures.

I then make the trek to work. It usually take about 30-35 minutes to get all the freakin way downtown. Here is my set up. I have it pretty good. I also did all the christmas decor around the office. It definitely helps keep our mood christmassy. I work from about 9-5:30 ish. Then I get stuck in traffic home, so my commute is about an hour. But it's not too bad unless I am sleepy. Then I am driving poorly with the radio blasting and cold air on trying to keep my eye balls open.

Jared is a hard worker, and usually gets home closer to 7. He makes some delicious frozen dinner. Which lately has been pot stickers. I love them..

Potsickers... yum. I am craving them right now.

This is wheaty, our roommates bulldog. Her and Shia are best friends. We are usually entertained by the two of them wrestling or biting each others cheeks for next few hours after dinner.

Prime example of Shia stealing Wheaty's toy and running down stairs.

Then around 10, we try and lay down to calm ourselves down. Jared usually plays guitar during this time for an hour or so. We watch all our recorded shows, and just hang out. I love this part of our night. When Shia is tried she is a huge cuddler, she loves snuggling'. I clearly take advantage of this time.

That's a day in my life. You should all do this, and leave me links. It would be fun to see what a day in your life is like!

i am _____ because

2011-11-22T19:28:00.001-07:00

First of all I got this idea from a blog that I consistently stalk the post is here. If you haven't read the little miss momma blog than you definitely need to. I love how she writes, and she might have the cutest baby and style ever. Her hubster looks like stud too.

Enough about my new favorite blog. Let's talk Miki?

I'm weird because...
I only wash my hair once a week
I have the weirdest dreams always
I enjoying scaring people at work all the time, or making them feel uncomfortable.
I always tell my family and husband lies that are just too dramatic to be true
I will randomly burst into an accent (I'm awful at accents)
I love glitter
I learned to drive a manual a few months ago, and am terrified to relearn driving in the snow
I could sleep 10 hours and still be tired
I'm usually not nice until after 11am, because I'm ornery
I am a night person without a doubt. I love staying up.
My phone is completely filled with pictures of my dog
I cuddle my dog every night, and have to actually physically wake her up before I leave for work.
I am married and have 2 male roommates, that I adore.

I'm a bad friend because...
I have issues committing to girl trips, because I hate the thought of sleeping without Jared
I never can remember birthdays
I can't relate to the mom world yet, so I never call about children.
Most of my good friends I don't see enough.

I'm a good friend because...
If you're hurting or need a night to vent I am always here.
I try to text friends just to say hey.
I would open my door to any friend at any hour.
I try to involve myself with friends and their families, so they know I do care.
I'll be your date to a wedding anytime.

I'm sad because...
My commute to an from work tripled over the last month.
I miss Kjerstin. She lives too many hours away.
I'm not going on my annual Mazatlan Xmas (2010 , 2009) trip this year.
(i went a little over board with the pictures)

I'm happy because...
I am in love with my boyfriend husband.
I have the best puppy.
I love my work and coworkers, and we're expanding and doing well.
I just used my first two bottles of glitter blast spray paint!
My roommate decided not to move out =)

I'm excited for...
Thanksgiving with my family.
Christmas with my in laws
Just life in general.

I would love to hear your I'm blank because, so do the same thing I did with Ashley. Either leave a comment with your answers or leave a link to your blog, so that I can go read them. I love hearing about all of you. =)

Procrastination..

2011-11-22T11:14:00.001-07:00

What do you think? Are you procrastinating while reading my blog... hope so! =)

My wonderful weekend!

2011-11-14T12:55:00.001-07:00

I had a fantastic weekend! I hope everyone else did too. It was a perfect weekend to get me ready for the cold hibernation that happens to me every year. I become such a hermit in the winter. I love to stay home and drink Cocoa, watch movies, and cuddle. I tend to want to go out less and stay in much more! Who's with me? yeah yeah!

The best part of my weekend was getting to see this:

Miki & Jared Wedding Day from Brandon Orton on Vimeo.

Do you love it?

Friday night we went out to a delicious restaurant, Martine. It's on 1st south and 22 East in Salt Lake. I ordered a Beef Filet, and my life was so good. It was insanely yummy. It came with the cutest potatoes too. I don't know how potatoes get so cute, but they were. Just sweet little balls that were cooked to the perfect mush. Oh man, I am drooling all over my keyboard just thinking about it. It is VERY expensive though. The only reason we went was Jared's 'work buddy' was in town, and he had the company card. I need more friends like that! seriously!
Have any of you ever been here?

Saturday.. oh saturday! We slept in till who knows when. I also love a good saturday morning sleep in. Nothing feels better than working all week, and then come Saturday when you have no limitations on sleeping. We bundled up and went to the most boring college football game I have ever been too. I love to see BYU win, but seriously Idaho only had ONE good play. In four freezing cold hours only ONE good play. I wanted to throw potatoes ;)!

We got home around midnight, and then stayed up all night watching movies and playing with Shia.

Sunday we decided to stay home from our parents, and just do all the things we have been meaning to do. Which for me meant deep clean my heart out, and for Jared meant catch up on some seriously missed RockSmith time. That kid is a champ. I love that he can practice guitar all the time now, because he is so much more content when he can play for at least half an hour. Plus I can already tell with 3 weeks of rocksmith under his belt he is already improving. He was pretty good before, but even better now.

Last week I found this awesome blog, and it had some fun interesting cleaning tips. I went to Dollar Tree, and bought all the cleaning supplies that I needed for the projects I wanted to try. Each one worked really well. I highly suggest them.

I cleaned my walls, doors and baseboards like THIS and I also used a generic magic eraser for scuffs. Which worked way better than I expected. I need to stock up on those babes!

I cleaned my sink like THIS - It worked insanely well! Way better than anything I have tried before, and that is saying a lot. I have tried so many things, because we have a white porcelain sink that seems to always be dirty!

I cleaned my windows like THIS and THIS. I love the Squeegee technique. It was so fast and my windows were all sparkly and beautiful!

My favorite project I did was cleaning all my vents. I took them out and scrubbed the daylights out of them with soap and water, and then I actually decided to repaint them white, because they were a bit banged up. They look a million times better. I felt so much better waking up this morning to s nice deep clean home!

I will go home, and take pictures tonight. Hope everyone had a fun weekend.

Pinterest Match up!

2011-11-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

I have decided recently that I am actually going to start letting the things that I pin on my pinterest account inspire me. I have done a few of the crafts that I post on there, but my fashion watch board just keeps expanding and I haven't "used" it yet. I am trying to rediscover my closet. I love that I have a bunch of clothes, but never think to mesh certain things. Last night I pulled out my laptop found an outfit on my fashion watch board, and then today I took a picture of my outfit.

Here's mine and the one I was trying to mimic, what do you think?
How'd I do for my first match up?

Cardigan & Dress: Charolette Russe

Boots: TJ Maxx

Belt: Kohls

Leggins: WalMart

Crazy Dog Lady

2011-11-07T17:03:00.000-07:00

That's me

I am the CRAZY DOG lady.

Shia is seriously half my heart.

I love her insanely unimaginably soft ears

My phone is filled with pictures of her; sleeping, eating, running and playing.

I want to buy her fashionable little collars with big flowers.

I cuddle her every night and can't sleep without her next to me,

scrunched between Jared and I.

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to check on her.

Because I am nervous she stopped breathing.

That's me..

This morning Jared and I woke up to her dry heaving, and rushed out of bed.

To try and make sure she puke somewhere where we don't sleep.

Success!

I cannot stay mad at her, even when she pees on the floor or chews up my favorite VS bra.

So Shia L Spinelly

Munchie

Angel Puff

I heart you.

Spinells helping us re-do our closet by grabbing her toys out.

Hanging out in our hoarder room where our entire closet exploded in our room.

Making her dad smile.

Goodnight freckle nose {she get's that from me}

Halloweenur!

2011-11-01T13:52:00.000-06:00

We had a blast this Halloween. We were able to celebrate Saturday and real Halloween on Monday. Jared and I decided to un-match kind of. He was Doc Holliday and I was Fire Sauce from Taco Bell. It was pretty funny. Saturday we went on a fun bus with all our friends, and had a great time. There were tons of fun people and lots of great costumes.

Doc Holiday is on the right

Jared had been grown out his mustache like it was his job and he was the boss. He owned the world of mustaches. However, I hate kissing mustaches, so our kiss-life was pretty lame last month. So last night when he decided to shave it off, and have normal facial hair again I was so thrilled that I took a photograph.

Shia is our little princess. She helped me answer the door for all the trick or treaters last night in her costume. The kids were so excited to see her dressed up, it was awesome. She ended up loving all the attention and just waited by the door, then when I opened it she would lay out like a beached whale and wait for every child to maul her, and love on her. She was pretty wore out at the end of the night, because laying out is tough!

Taco Bell Sauce Costume

2011-11-01T13:44:00.000-06:00

Here's the scoop. One day my main squeeze and I were deciding on H-lo-Ween costumes, and I saw this funny costume online.

So I was like "miki, you could easily make this"then I thought some more, and was like "let's do it!". I didn't really take a ton of pictures of the process (or none - OOPS!) But I thought I would describe the process since it is so simple and a total hit at all the parties!

Materials I used:

Iron on transfer paper at Hobby Lobby ($8)

3 Yards of red fabric from Wal Mart ($7)

white paint and a sharpie - had on hand

I used a dress I had to make the pattern. I just traced to outside of the dress on the red fabric with chalk. Then I folded it in half and had Jared sew about an inch away from the chalk line (it was inside out, so the seam would be on the inside when it was done).

Then I hopped on my lap top, and mirrored the word "fire" and the belly square "I see how you look at other sauces" in photoshop. I then measured how wide and tall I wanted the writing and belly square. I sized them out in photoshop and saved them as JPEGS. The transfer paper requires an inkjet printer. I printed and then ironed it on the costume. I put wax paper over the iron on and it took about 15 minutes of ironing for them to set.

However it didn't show up perfect, because you can't really print white.. apparently! I just painted the patch white and lettering white. I used an all purpose paint, and it worked totally fine, and took about 10 minutes. Then I colored in the lettering and outlined the word "Fire" with a sharpie. It worked perfect! I think it turned out pretty cute, and for $15, I WIN!

I took this the night we finished the costume, and then forgot pictures on real Halloween. Too complete the costume I wore red lipstick, painted my nails red and had red shoes on with a strapless bra, so my tank wasn't showing. It was real cute! I loved the saying on my belly too. Cracked up. Great, easy costume!

Venturing through Jared's phone

2011-10-31T13:30:00.000-06:00

Every few months I go through Jared's pictures and send myself a bunch of photos. It is kind of funny, because it is like reliving a bunch of memories through Jared's eyes. Also when we were dating or even when we just aren't together, Jared will send me pictures of things and it is fun for me to save them if I forgot too. Here are my top 7.
Just a reminder.. both of our phones are full of pictures of our puppy dog. She kind of takes up our entire life.

Shia on my lap as a toddler {BEFORE}

Shia on me now.. {After}

Two of her many faces that crack me up all the time.

This was the biggest slice of pizza ever. It was the only place open in Miami after we drove down there from Ft Lauderdale. I probably ate it all.

We stopped at Disney world after the Bahamas on our honeymoon. I forgot my camera at Epcot so this is one of the only photos we have from Epcot.

Jared tried on my headband. ha ha ha ha!

Octubre

2011-10-27T15:28:00.000-06:00

I was looking through Hewy (my phone), and realized that the last few weeks have been out of control. There has been so much going on, and when that happens it seems like time just hustles on by. Also Shia tore her ACL pretty bad. It is very common in dogs, so the vets rate the tears from 1-10, and he told us Shia's was like a 9.9 probably. She is a champ, and handled surgery like a trooper. But the recovery process has been insanely difficult. It is like having a newborn baby. We had to carry her out to the grass for potty breaks, we had to carry her over to her food & water, and she'd wake up at night just whining, because she laid on her incision wrong. It really did break my heart. Then all of the sudden she got ALL of her energy back. Then it became even more difficult, because Jared and I were trying to do anything we could to keep her off her leg, and she seriously just wanted to play. It's been rough. Yesterday she got her staples out, and is now allowed to walk to the bathroom and to eat, she can even go up and down the stairs slowly. In another 4 weeks we will get her x-rays to see how she's healed up.

Shia also turned one on October 6th, and I know I am slightly annoying in the video, because I was trying to get Shia to get excited, but Spinelly is really cute.

A few weeks ago, Jared went to San Fran for work Friday through Monday. After being alone with Shia the gimp for 2 days, I decided I needed a break from her and needed to get out! I went to the mall for some retail therapy, but I am pretty cheap so retail therapy is like spending $15, which is exactly what I did! For only $15 I got the cutest pants ever! They are a bright blue color, and I want to get them in every color. They had like gray, magenta, and navy blue at Charlotte Russe. These were the only ones in my size though.

After Jared got back it had finally become Pumpkin Carving time! Last year we went nuts carving. We each carved 6 pumpkin probably. This year we've only carved one. We went to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins, but they were extremely expensive.. so we just went to Wal*Mart.

Pumpkins means HALLOWEEN! I have the best man in the world, because he helps me with everything! Sometimes I get crazy ideas or I just have an image in my mind and he helps me put it all together. So this year I found what I wanted to be, and I thought this won't be hard to make at all! Two nights of Jared sewing, 2 hours of me printing iron ons, and a full hour of painting and tracing my costume is done! But total it only cost about $12. Can't get much better than that... I can't tell you what my costume is though. It's a surprise.

Hey baby.

2011-10-20T17:01:00.000-06:00

I like the things you do! HEY BABY! I like you!

That's the song I wrote for my boyfriend husband. Today is a day that I really love my life. Some thing are lame like the fact that this week my office moved (cool), but then my commute more than doubled each way (lame).

However then I think of things like the fact that Jared wrote on this calendar "Kiss Miki" the day after his work-cation.

That my baby girl Shia is FINALLY starting to heal up (she tore her ACL), and she's ready to get staples out and start using her back leg again. I love her too much.

Life is seriously so good.

DIY Wedding Elements

2011-10-12T11:31:00.000-06:00

I was looking through my wedding photos, and I felt a lot of pride looking throughout them, because I did so much of the wedding myself. I had help setting up, but most everything was homemade to save money. I think they ended up looking perfect. The main themes were; big fish (vintage) blue and yellow.

These were the centerpiece stuffings. I got from hobby lobby and tore apart to fill each vase with. I also ordered blue and yellow buttons of Ebay to hold the stuffing in.

We had 8 tables, each had 3 things, chalkboard that I made {to see CLICK here}, vase with buttons and stuffing, and then a fishbowl from the DI with succulents that I planted in them to match my bouquet.

Jared's family made the reception food. Clayton made some strawberries in Tux's.

We had assorted desserts, croissants with different filling, and a candy bar. We did all this ourself to save money and to customize. I really appreciate ALL the help from the DeMann's for this portion, and from my family too!

I made my veil, and the clip to hold it in. The Veil was from ebay, then I made a clip out of a $3 broach, and some fake pearls with a peacock feather to add some flare. I need to find a better picture.

Cake Toppers can be expensive! Well like $25 for something you'll use once. I wanted love birds so badly, but I couldn't find any I loved. So I bought 2 ceramic birds at Michaels for $2 each, and still have them for memorabilia and decoration.

Flowers are EXPENSIVE! Since we did an outdoor wedding the only flowers I ordered were my bouquet, which is Succulents, Cacti and billy balls, because I don't like flowers very much. I made all the bouquets for my bridesmaids. I bought some twigs, vase filling and feathers and twine from hobby lobby, and they turned out darling. I love they way look! They matched perfect.

The picture is a bit blurry, but you can see the ribbon and tiny key.

Each bouquet had a twine "stem" to hold, with a ribbon wrapped around, and a key attached to it. I love keys, and they added a little something extra.

Boutonnieres

The boys all had boutonnieres made from a peacock feather, some vase filling, wire, twine and a key on theirs as well. See how I made them by clicking {HERE}.

Lights added a huge element to the wedding. We had assorted lighting everywhere.

The signs were very vintage. I cute out the sayings with my silhouette and then placed them on the wood, and mode podged them down! I had a few around. There was one that said "Jared and Miki", "Gifts" "happily ever after begins here", and "seating arrangements". They really help bring out the rustic and vintage feel.

Turning ONE!

2011-10-06T12:01:00.000-06:00

My little munchie turned one today! I love this puppy so much. It seems like we have had her for years, but it's really only been a 10 months.. click here for the story of how Shia L Spinelly came to be part of our family.

This pup seriously has been incredible, but also a challenge. Jared and I never had a real fight in the first two years of our relationship, then came Shia. We didn't know the correct way to discipline or if she should be allowed to sleep in the bed. Which by the way YES she does sleep in our bed every night, and she cuddles me to death. She seriously spoons. Wraps her paws around my tummy and spoons. Jared is the best puppy dad ever. He loves Shia a lot. He even came home on valentine with a present for Shia and I then we all the 3 watched a movie together. Also when she doesn't feel good he puts warmed up towels around her and cuddles her to pieces. It is so cute. She loves it.

Guilt has overwhelmed me today, because for Shia's first birthday she is spending the day in the hospital. She tore her ACL and is getting surgery to repair it today. No worries my little girl is a champ, she never slows down and hasn't even though the pain is suppose to prevent her from walking. She still was trying to play fetch and run laps yesterday. Picture this, Shia running like she does... which is like a high speed frog since her legs are always together (front then back), then Jared and I trying to sneakily catch her to make her stop using her gimp leg. It was a mess.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHIA!

This is my pip squeak as a baby head.

Shia Jared and I on Valentines

Shia and I dancing at my wedding.

Shia in her Birthday outfit

At 12:15am on her birthday, she couldn't stay awake.

Good luck in Surgery Angel Puff Munchie! Love you!

Naming my babe

2011-10-02T16:46:00.000-06:00

I remember so clearly the day that Vern and I met. He was this handsome little Corolla, just ready for me to get him and drive my late teen and early adulthood away. I got Vern the week before I turned 16. I just barely sold him last Wednesday. I didn't really mean to sell him, but Jared told me he bet that tops I would get $800, but long behold. I wrote the funniest KSL ad, I had ever seen. (I frequent KSL a lot). Within 30 minutes we had 3 very interested buyers, and the first man to call was named Art. He came over after work and took Vern for a test drive, and it was love at first drive. The funny thing is he pulled up in an older Corolla, and then bought Vern for his sons knocked up girlfriend. Vern was in way better condition than his Corolla, because seriously Vern was my only baby before Shia.

Later that night, we decided to go to a dealership, and test drive a bunch of cars. We thought it would be easier to at least see a bunch of different cars in one spot, before we looked online and had to drive to 10 different locations. After being at the dealership for over 3 hours, we decided that I definitely wanted to stick with Toyota, they drove better than any of the other cars in our price range, and I already trust them a lot. I haven't ever had a major problem on my car, and the parts for him like new brakes or tires are cheaper because they are all standard. However, I was a lotting myself to spend some money, and so I didn't want a bland Corolla or Camry. I looked at Yaris, Prius and most sedans toyota makes. Then we went home did some research, and started to look at Toyota's other brands, scion and lexus. Lexus was out of my price range, so we did some serious research on scions. I fell in love with the Scion TC, we got online found a seller selling theirs for 3K under Blue Book. I was stoked. We checked out the title, car faxed the mofo, and had it looked over by a trusted mechanic. The car was perfect!

The seller's claimed they had already bought a new car, and were expecting a baby really soon so they needed to get rid of it fast. That was that! The car is done and bought! I love every second of it. It has a manual transmission and I have driven manuals before, but never owned one. So it is fun and exciting to have a completely different car! I just love him.

I still haven't found a name for him though. I need to immediately though. I know he is a boy (obviously), but I need help! Any suggestions? I like Wilbur and Boden so far, but they just haven't stuck yet!

Music Shout Out

2011-09-28T10:52:00.000-06:00

I am a music fanatic. But sometimes I also like really bad music like Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA... I love to dance to it, and the music video kills me. Cracks me right up. Today is not a blog post about Miley or her brother, Metrostation. It is about my new favorite band, which came from an old favorite band. On of my old favorite bands was Lydia, they kick some major music butt. The lead singer, Leighton literally could be my best friend, just because his voice is that awesome. I'm sure he is nice too, but he is so UNIQUE! Hard to do in this auto tone, techno blastin' world. I'm proud of him. Mindy used to also sing, but word on the street is she left and started her own band called the states. The sound a little like Paramore.

Leighton created a new project called, The Cinema. TOTALLY AWESOME! He and a man named Craig still keep Lydia up and going, but Leighton and lydia's producer Matt own my iTunes right now. I have listened to the cinema for like 3 days straight, about 20 times a day. They are that good.

Before/ Lydia:

After/The Cinema:

Ya'll should go get there CD if you loved that last song as much as I did.

http://onesheet.com/thecinema/

Before or After?

2011-09-22T14:40:00.000-06:00

Some days, I get hit with a bat of creative ingenious! One day my dad and I decided to go hit up the DI. Who doesn't love a good DI day? Well as you may remember from some previous post, I am so excited to start decorating the house!

So I found this piece of pretty fantastic furniture. That was pretty beat. He desperately wanted to live in a home again, so he pleaded and I tried to resist, but couldn't. So I brought him home, sanded him a lot, buffed out some scratched and painted and glazed him till he felt good about himself again.

What do ya think? It's my first bright piece ev.

Confessions of the OCD

2011-09-14T12:58:00.000-06:00

I have a confession. I was so worried that after we sealed the deal, put the stamp on it and were done with our marriage I would sink into a state of utter confusion. I LOVED planning the wedding, I seriously was not stressed, and am so incredibly OCD that I enjoyed making tons of lists, and binders full of details. The best part was that at the end I was able to make all the decor. I made the bouquets, centerpieces, boutonnieres, the frames, the flyer's, the signs, seating charts. I mean seriously everything (besides attire, I suck at sewing.) I was so pleased with the outcome. When I was walking down the aisle, it was pure bliss. Not only because Jared is my first mate, but also because I had so much PRIDE in my own wedding. I felt that it was so me and Jared, that you could walk in and practically smell us, that's how custom it was.

I was nervous that after the wedding I wouldn't know what else I could have that much pride, and feel so worthy over. Then I remembered, oh yeah. I now have a house. Whoopee, no more apartment shopping, make shift decorating, and most of all I CAN PAINT! I have so many ideas. I have a large list accumulating on my pinterest account, which my sweet new sister in law informed me it's pronounced pin-tur-ist NOT pee-interest. So I sounded like an idiot for the last few months. Oops. =)

http://pinterest.com/mikiloveless/our-home/

Last night I was at Hobby Lobby, and they had a huge sell on light switch plate covers. I am pretty sure I have an obsession with having different light switch plate covers. I love when you see unique ones. It is a small detail, but I think it bring class, elegance and customization into any room. Plus it is one thing that you use everyday so it's worth having something you love. In my personal opinion. I bought these really heavy duty metal covers. They have a cool design on the, and look older and rustic. Plus our home is all darker tones right now, so it works perfect. Hobby Lobby always has really awesome sales too. So total they were suppose to cost: $12.97, and they were only $6.00. winning!

Next on my list of projects to do, is stencil my wall. I got the idea from Mandi over @ vintage revivals. Here are some of her projects that inspired my idea.
http://vintagerevivals.blogspot.com/search/label/stencil

My accent wall is like a brownish grey color, Jared and I painted the whole house like 2 years ago. Thank Heavens, because that sucked. I want to paint this stencil on the wall in like a copper color. Do you think that would look good? Do you know of any paints I should use? Have you ever stenciled?

http://royaldesignstudio.com/shop_stencils_detail.php?id=1822

Facts of a love day

2011-09-08T12:12:00.000-06:00

Okay lets get down to business and defeat the huns.. did they send me daughters when i asked for SONS! you're the saddest... (mulan intro)
Here are a few facts in the life of Miki or mostly some wedding highlights
.
I am pretty sure I had the best wedding ever. I don't mean to step on any toes, but seriously. It went a little something like this. Friday we hosted a beautiful intimate ceremony up in the mountains of Sundance. We chose to have our closest friends and our family up there to support us and enjoy one of the happiest days I have witnessed so far. I highly suggest getting married. After our sweet ceremony we had a delicious catered meal under a canopy of lights, that Jared and his dad set up for me. The 3 course meal was full of toasts, laughing, tearing up, and a good time had by everyone! I believe the credit of this photo goes to Ms. Mary Bess.

I am not positive if you can spot it, but Stewart falls is behind us. We had a gigantic line, but with a huge family that happens. I was so happy they all agreed to support us. It was better than anything I could have imagined. All the hard work and planning is worth this few minutes.

My girl hounds (back to front): Betsy, Kylie, Ellen, (hiding) Darla, Calee, Kjerstin, Mary
Jare Hounds boys (back to front): Clayton, Phil, Christiaan, Josh, Devin (hiding) Bryce, Justin

Saturday night we had our reception. I know a few friends that came to the ceremony didn't make it up to the reception. I wish that they would have. The reception was so much fun, this turned out perfect. Since Friday was like the ice breaker, everyone was low stress on Saturday, and we were able to talk to all of our guests and enjoy the reception! I also would recommend this layout, it's hard to imagine planning a 2 day wedding, but why wouldn't you want the best decision you could possibly make to be celebrated for more than a few hours? There was live music which meant dancing; slow dancing, dirty dancing, line dancing, square dancing and my FAVORITE was our dance circle. Those pictures would be priceless. CANDY so much yummy candy that was open to everyone. Then there was the photo booth where most the fun happened! We even beat the record of 21 people in the photobooth. We had 24!!But then Josh and Clayton one upped us with 26 people in their photo. PLUS the delicious food. All of Jare's family made us cupcakes, desserts, and croissant sandwiches that were gobbled up.

The guest book had all the photos from the photo booth, and sweet messages everyone wrote to us. Jared and I read this after our honeymoon, and each day since. It was the BEST idea invented even better than the toaster! Every ones pictures cracked me up. I seriously have looked at this book like 100 times in 3 days.

Then to top it all off, Shia attended the wedding. Love that dog. Best surprise Jared ever had for me.

Lastly all of or friends/ family stayed the night Saturday after we left, and celebrated. I think this was one of the best things we did. Everyone had such a great time, and they got a mini-vacation. Seriously it was a huge cabin, and the stories I have been hearing make me so happy! Everyone was able to stay up and that was mine and Jared's gift to everyone that helped us make our wedding perfect.

I don't get the pictures back for a few weeks from our photographer, so I'll put those up soon. Keep checking back OK? I also am planning to put up all the honeymoon stories + pictures this week too! Hip Hip HOO-RAY for blog updates!

Also if any one of you have any pictures from the wedding. I would love to see them even if they aren't of me =) PLEASE!

Happy Days..

2011-08-12T16:08:00.000-06:00

What makes you so freakin' happy?

He does:

She does:

This song does:

This Song does too:

Today is just a happy day!

PS I saw rise of the planet of the apes today.. It was alright. I enjoyed it while I was in the theatre, but now I don't think I would want to watch it again. I do admit that the main actor James Franco is really handsome, and he is awesome. No doubt there. However the ape... he was really cool until he hit about 5 years old, and turned into a total DBAG! I don't know if I will ever dream of having a pet monkey again...

I give it 2/5 stars?

Final touches

2011-08-10T13:24:00.000-06:00

Do you know why I am happy? Because today marks the 16th day away from the wedding! I am so entirely excited. In regards to my last post. We really did make a lot of lists of final things we need to do. Things like:

Find the perfect hair clip for my veil
finish making the centerpieces
make the DVD to play during the reception
make a playlist for our AWESOME dj
write our vows
Make the seating chart
get jared suit pressed
buy candles

I just bought these. I love Succulents, my whole bouquet is made out of them.

.. ya know things like that.

Then I have this INCREDIBLE mommy. She brought up 2,000 things that I hadn't thought of, and really appreciate. Since we are not having a traditional wedding, we are doing it all our selves. Including all the decorating, all the setting up, all the everything! We've done all the aesthetic work. But now I need to get off my chest the list of things I need to get for the behind the scenes. Things like:

water bottles for the shuttle
garbage bags
bug spray
Iron
Tapes: electrical, masking, and duct
cleaning supplies

There are a few thousand more. I plan on just packing a duffle bag of everything in our homes. I am getting so entirely excited that we are barely over two weeks ago! I am so excited for everyone to see this wedding, and how much work we've put in to it. I made everything from the frames, to the centerpieces to the boutonnieres. The boys all look so handsome. The girls look so beautiful.

Jared is the most handsome man on the face of the earth, and I honestly cant wait to dress up like a princess for a day. Life is SO fantastic! Wedding fever over here. woo woo!

Nextly let me give a small shout out to a few people.

Betsy

Darla

Calee

Mary

Kylie

I had a blast dancing at the westerner with ya'll!!

{you guys are the best sister-in-laws EVER} Thank you so much for throwing my bachelorette party. That was such a fun night, and a great way to start our sistership... next matching TATTOOS! =)

Kylie even did my hair. She's awesome!

who can curl like that? Kylie!

look at those kisses

my sweet hubbsters, heather

Nichole stole the first bachelorette dance

Im awful!

2011-08-09T11:51:00.001-06:00

Apparently I am being a bad blogger and I apologize! My brain is so scattered lately. I am only 17 days aways from getting married! Isn't that nutty? As nuts as Roseanne's Nuts? Totally. I have 2 lists.

Things I still have to buy:

Things I still have to make/ do:

With the 2 of them together I have like 2 pages of line items that I need to cross off. Jared and I spent all night shopping for a tie clip and cuff links. We found the most awesome ones that totally match his wedding ring. They are all like brushed metal.

Next on the list is that we have to re-confirm a caterer. Ours kind of graciously bowed out like a freakin' loser. So 2 1/2 weeks to the wedding and we're back at taste testing! Woo!

After that we have small things and then we get married. then we go to the bahamas. then we go to disney world. then we come home!

Any tips? Any advices on how to make this last 2 weeks less stressful?

Peacock Boutonniere

2011-07-14T15:15:00.000-06:00

Before you read this please know that this is my first Miki original project. I am so proud of myself for coming up with this project all on my own. I decided to make boutonniere's because they are so expensive. Everything flower related is way too expensive. Plus I don't even like flowers! I'm just really proud.

These are all the supplies I started with:

- Peacock feathers that I got on amazon, and for 50 feathers it was $8.
- Floral tape
- Wire
- Keys that I got on ebay 150 for $4
- White styrofoam pearls for $1
- Twine
- Glue Gun
- Scissors

I separated the white balls into stems with 3 each. I made sure that the stems were long enough for the boutonniere's.

I took the keys, and wrapped wire in the top hole. I also made sure the wire was long enough for the boutonniere. I tried to make the wire, the white stems, and the excess peacock feather all the same size, so that it would make it easier to wrap in floral tape.

Then all I did was have my sweet Jared hold them all together, while I wrapped the tape really tight around them. See how they look a little too skinny?

That is why I wrapped them in twine to thicken em' up! The twine adds a really organic look to them, which will work perfect for our theme.

Chalkboard Table Numbers

2011-07-11T13:40:00.000-06:00

IM GETTING MARRIED! Now that is exciting. We basically decided to make all the decorations and everything ourselves. I saw these darling chalkboards that would make a perfect way to number the tables. I had everything on hand except the boards which only cost me 98 cents at Walmart. Below are the boards that I purchased. They were all natural, so I did the full make over on these babes.

Here are the supplies I ended up using. I used cardboard for the stencil, and painters tape to try and create really clean lines. Of course the usual straight edge, X Acto knife, and cutting board.

First I stencilled out where I wanted to chalkboard to be, and painted everything else white, as white can be.

Clearly the next step was to reverse the outline, so that I covered up the white, and chalked that board up! I used the Krylon Chalkboard paint. I made 8 of these boards, and it took a few hours, because the chalkboard paint dries slow as a flippin' snail. I can't tell you how many people I was able to make small talk with as they passed my porch as I watched paint dry. Good way to get to know your neighbors.

Even though I claim perfection. I used a fine paint brush to smooth out the lines, because they were all smeary.

I love the vintage look, where pieces are tore up from the floor up! So I glazed them. The boards had a smooth surface, so you kind of have to create the antiquing look without any grooves.

See the difference? I like the right much more.

I know they look simple, but this is my first miki original project! I am super proud of the finished product. I think they will look adorable at the wedding.

21st Anniversary

2011-07-06T12:12:00.000-06:00

Today I have been thinking about Miki. She is such a weird creature. How you will know if you find a miki:

in odd situations they make even ODDER faces
when put in the sun they get lots of freckles
no feeling in half of their right hand
they often watch really REALLY cheesy lifetime movies

and then cry...

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY next week is the 21st anniversary of the first ever MIKI to be born. July 12th to be more exact. On this day people shower miki's with gifts. I may or may not have an inside hint to what a miki would want. I'll share with you.

(first hand interview with a miki)

What would you like for you birthday?

First off I have been DYING for a Silhouette. You should see all the freakin' awesome projects that I could do with one. I don't mean to be pushy, but I found a lady on KSL who is selling them in SLC for $180! un•freaking•heard• of! Plus they have the same perks as when you buy one online; cutting mats, blads, and $10 gift certificate.

www.silhouetteamerica.com-- see the AWESOME machine, and see what it does.

Miki, clearly you'd absolutely love a Silhouette, but what else would you like?

Ok Ok, well I am going to the bahamas on my HONEYMOON in a few weeks or days or months or whatever.

I really need some summer clothes to make my new hubby man want me even more! So he'll double take, and be uhhh like I'm so glad I put a ring on that.

Maybe like these

click pic. for link :

I wear a S and XS tops, and 0 or 1 pant size. Just a hint ;)

I also am dying to own another Victoria Secret Swimsuit, which could be used for my H-moon. I linked the pictures to the website, if you'd like to browse yourself.

This one is so so CUTE! Agreed? Yes. I really love the gold and white top. I am really into the mismatched matching too, like the pink bottoms. I might need an adorable hat to go with it too.

Black and White is always a winner in my book. I love Zebra stripes, and the bottoms are a little thicker on this one which is nice, because sometimes bottoms want to show your whole bottom, and I'm not really into that.

This is the bombshell, which always make the models bust look absolutely overwhelmingly massive, but for those of us who don't have these large gifts the bombshell is just a sweet booster. I really am into the color gold lately. Reminds me of the greeks.

Wow those are great swimsuits. I think you gave the people of America a great idea of what you'd like to see for your 21st anniversary of being alive. If you had one outrageous gift choice what would it be?

Funny you should ask that Mr. interviewer. I really would love to get really dark wood floors put into the Draper house. I am so sick of looking at that dirty irty carpet!

OR an Audi R8, but I'd settle for a mini cooper =)

July is here!

2011-07-01T13:36:00.000-06:00

I am so thrilled it is July. Could today be any better honestly? No probably not. Here's the story of why I am grinning ear to ear. MY INVITATIONS CAME OUT PERFECT it only took 4 rejects, but they're here now and that's all that matters. What a great way to celebrate July 1st.

P.S. do you like that feather in my hair? It's a head band. I love it.

Also My birthday is in 11 days (not including today). Life is so splendid. I just want to go scream from the roof tops, and then ride a lawn mower with Jared, much like a cheesy 80s movie (can you tell I watched easy A last night?)

I couldn't write the word 'days' backwards.. clearly

Next Shia my baby puppy turns 9 months old next Wednesday. She is growing up so fast. I remember when she was hyper and out of control... oh wait. Nothing's changed. Except now when she jumps on me, I practically fall over. Love that baby head to pieces. She's my one and only {out-of-species} love.

The first night with Shia L. Spinelly. Read more here..

Shia now. She's presh.

This weekend I am going to make these crazy cool chalkboard name tags. I found boards that were shaped really cute at Wally World (walmart) that were only 98 cents. Baby that's a deal right thurrr. {Last night, I won some dual primer/ white spray paint thanks to Ellen (who really won) but thanks to Mandi @ vintage revivals for hosting the SLC GNO.} Anyway back to the story I am going to paint them with the white winning paint, glaze them black, and then paint a square on the front with chalkboard paint! That way they can be used to write who is sitting at which table for the ceremony, and then the next day for the reception I can label the dessert buffet with the chalkboards. I'll post a tutorial, and some pictures next week. So stay with me friends!

They'll look somewhat like this, but my boards have a more detail and will be painted WHITE.

DIY party!!

2011-06-29T11:32:00.000-06:00

Does anyone of my bloggin' peeps that like DIY projects want to attend this party tomorrow with me?

I am really excited to go, and want someone to attend with me! You should all go check out Mandi's site as well. She is so dang funny, and has so many creative ideas. I've been on my knees spray painting, sanding, glazing and thrift shopping (well I don't shop on my knees, but you get the idea) the last few months and a lot of the credit goes to Vintage Revivals. The girls is totes and dorbin' awesome!

http://vintagerevivals.blogspot.com/

Vent Sesh

2011-06-28T12:45:00.000-06:00

Hello ladies and gents. I definitely need a good vent session. Sometimes everybody needs to get things off their chest and man oh man, doesn't it feel good when you finally feel free from your worries? I will try and keep this fast and painless, so that your eyes don't glaze over, and you don't have a pool of drool after you finish.

In not particular order of bugginess here it goes.

No 1. Wedding Vent Wedding planning with Jare Hound is so extremely EASY! We both agree on everything; the venue, the cake, the clothes, the food, the decor and errrything! We haven't had any real stress. Planning has been smooth as butter. Except for the wedding invitations. I had my friend who is an awesome illustrator Joe Esquibel design them, and my dad helped of course. I am so incredibly in love with the design, the colors, the size and EVERYTHING about them! For some GD reason printers cannot get them right. The first time they were folded extremely crooked, so I sent them back. The second time the double printed in the middle so the for instance... the word wedding says wedd dding okay so that is clearly messed up again - back to the printer. So as of yesterday, they are back at the printers for the 3RD time. I have had 2 different printers take a shot, and I'm trying to resolve everything within my power. It's really been an awful nightmare. Thank the heavens that we are ahead of schedule or this might frustrate me ;)

No. 2 I am HAVING a blast doing the decorations for the wedding. I am in love with ebay and amazon. I spend so little money and get so much bang for my buck! I have purchased books on DIY wedding, and am making all the boutonnieres, and so many other things. I love learning new things, and becoming more of an arteeest.

Now on a really happy note

I am excited to have Jared as part of my fabulous family.

Also. I am so thrilled to be a DeMann, and to finally have some more sista's and brotha's!

tuesday blues.

2011-06-21T13:17:00.001-06:00

Today started out perfect. Right? The sun was shining. Shia was snoring. Life was good. Life is still good, except for one thing.

My invitations had a major or minor-ish glitch. I went to pick them up, and without going into much detail. Let's say I have to have them reprinted.

On the bright side. We definitely are enough ahead of schedule that it shouldn't cause any serious delays. Take a deep breath, in and out.

Here is my sweet baby Shia, to put you all in a good mood =)

Orton Films

2011-06-14T15:44:00.000-06:00

Last night Jared and I FINALLY were able to do our video shoot. Since we've had to reschedule errrything due to this crazy weather. The shoot is for this awesome save the date video that I envisioned. I fell in love with a certain video that I came across on the internet, and we kind of mimicked it. Ours will definitely be different, and equally as awesome.

This is my inspiration:

Lex & Loren - Engagement/Save the date! from Brinton Films on Vimeo.

The man starring in the video is a videographer. He and his fiancé filmed this after they were engaged. I absolutely love the simplicity, and how they don't talk at all, but you know they are so IN LOVE! I am trying to create the same tone that this video has with ours.

We hired Brandon Orton from Orton films to do our video. He was so incredible to work with. The sun stayed out for most of the 5 hours we filmed last night, and we got some pretty awesome shots. It did rain for a little in the middle, of course, I love the rain so we also shot in the rain. Jared and I were slipping all over the hills, and I was pretty sure that those shots need to go on a bloopers video. Our video includes these things plus LOTS more:

I don't want to give too much away, but everyone had to have known that I would put all the puppies in this video. right?

This is also a video Brandon did for himself and his wife. I think it's sweet =)

LINK HERE

family.

2011-06-08T19:04:00.001-06:00

I just have a quick post. I usually don't post twice in one day, but I just had a feeling of such love overwhelm me. I wanted to shout out to the cyber world, and tell all of you how much I love my family. Im joining a wonderful family this year, the demanns. As I start fresh with this family I realized how much I've been through, and adore my own family. Im so proud to say im a spitting image of my beautiful mom. I have a personality mimiking my dad, and my brothers I see everyday and know everything about them. We are a small family, and we are very close.

Secondly I have a few friends who've stayed in my life for years. Those few have become family to me. I know they'll be in my life forever. We've been through so much; gifts, family problems, divorces, marriages, babies and so many good times that cancel out that bad.

All in all im a very thankful person. I love my fam.

The newest girly I've added to my lioness club. Ms. Mary Bess. I love this girl so much, and have no idea what I'd do without her. She lets me rant to her all the time. When my feelings get hurt, she's right there to sympathize. I know she truly cares about me. Love is an understatement when it comes to Mary.

My long time BFF Ellen. We've gone through thick and thin together. I don't imagine one time in my life when ellen won't be there with me. She knows me very well no matter if we do or don't hang out everyday. I know she's one who will always be with me.

My other long time sweetheart, Kjerstin. I can remember the day we met, and we never looked back. I will always need kjerstin in my life. She is a long distance friend for the past 4 years, and that hasn't weakened our friendship at all. I think it may have strengthened it. I am so glad to call her mine.

My loving parents, dressed as dog and beth. What hotties.

My soon to be niece, Elsie Bess. I love her and her momma dearly.

My dad with a head of hair. Lucky to have him =)

My sweet momma and I with my papa as a creep.

My sweet little brother that always says Im his little sister, since he's been taller than me since forever practically.

And my older broha, Brennon. We've been called twins, but turns out we're very different. However we know the most about each other than anyone in the family. He's the best big brother a girl could have.

My Tuesday.

2011-06-08T15:00:00.000-06:00

Sometimes it will be the middle of the day, and I just get these creative urges. Usually I revamp my blog. Which is why the design, text, and buttons change about 20 times a month. I was definitely born into a do-it-yourself family, and I think I have creative genes in my body. Sometimes they just like to hide.

Our wedding is all a DIY wedding. We are making as much of it as possible. It definitely saves money, but the biggest reason is because I wanted to be a HUGE part of my own wedding. There are too many couples who are okay with hiring a planner, and hiring vendors to do it all, and putting the trust 100% in them. Most of these wedding turn out absolutely gorgeous, but I wanted mine to be shout our names as you walk in. These are our colors to explain some of my decorating =)

Jared and I have been scavenging for months trying to find decor. We've collected bunches of picture frames (so has our family) and last night I went nuts! After work I went to Hobby Lobby and bought tons of paint, and primer. My frame night started at 6pm and ended at about 10:45. I had such a good time, and learned a lot.

A few things I learned:

Yellow is a really translucent color, and it's hard to paint with.
Old frame backings are extremely difficult to get off.
Not to leave ANY glass pieces around (3 broke!)
Shia (my pup) has to be quarantined.

This was my mess about an hour into the project.

Here are a few before and afters, please enjoy.

This one was a challenge, because the Canvas, had to be removed, and it had paper backing stapled on the back, I had to soak the paper in warm water, and slowly peel it off.

For some reason my spray painted brain decided to take a picture of these two together for the final after. So the larger (top picture with indian girl) is the white frame and the smaller brown one with the Blue matte, I did Navy Blue.

These frames were also victims of the paper backing. It made them hard to work with, and they took the most time. The transparent yellow worked well with this paint, because it had a cracked finish, and kept the rugged look I am going for.

I had a hard time with this one, because the gold was still showing through a little with the yellow paint, and since it had so many ridges it took forever to dry.

This last one was my personal favorite. What do you think? I really like that light blue color.

Here is the whole crowd in before and after photos.

Just a side note: The 2 on the far right in the yellow box were from a previous day I wrote about them here.

Before:

After:

I bought all the frames at the DI (thrift store) for a total of $10. Doing it yourself is a nice way to save some money, and to get the product you envision.

Here's my rant.

2011-06-06T18:00:00.000-06:00

Have you ever heard that saying "well maybe it was a blessing in disguise"? I usually can see the positive in everything, because I was definitely raised that way. Also, Jared has certainly perfected the art of never being negative. You can't make Jared be negative if you gave him a million dollars and a new guitar. In his mind everything happens for a reason. I have a harder time accepting that truth, but I try to see the silver lining in everything.

This past few weeks has definitely tested my patience. I tried so hard to schedule everything out to the exact matter for our wedding planning, so that I could control all the elements. I read so many [probably too many, because I feel like I could be a qualified wedding planner] articles, blogs, and websites all about planning your perfect wedding. I have checklists, calendars and a binder full of every single vendor we are using plus the items we are using from them, and an example from their portfolio. Turns out I am OCD? Who would have known. . ;)

We had to reschedule our engagements pictures twice so we were almost a month behind on my invitation schedule. On top of our engagements photos, I wanted to shoot a cute little video as our "save the date". That our guests will see before they actually have their invitations. We have tried to make this weather cooperate, and lord knows it will not! Once again today we were rescheduled (ooh how I hate that word!) Now at best we are hoping that we can shoot next week. Due to the fact that today was suppose to be the best of bad weathered days this week. I can only hope that this is a blessing in disguise.

Maybe next week I will look super hot, and Jared will have time to trim his face. Which would be more than we could say for today.

Anyway I hope that the rest of you are having a fabulous day! Keep your chins up and carry on. Everything happens for a reason, we can only hope.

Awful Tragedy

2011-06-03T12:26:00.000-06:00

June 1 2011, Justin Yates was killed in a plane crash in Wendover Utah. Justin and his sweet family lived next door to my parents. He left behind his 3 beautiful children all of which are under the age of 12, and his gorgeous wife, Sally. (news story here)

The most awful thing is that Justin's life insurance policy lapsed last week! Sally and her family now have no income, and will be receiving nothing from their insurance. There are a few pledges set up to help them in this time of need. Anything will be greatly appreciate. Please, $5 would help more than you'd ever be able to know.

This is the donation account my mom set up, it's easy and takes less than 2 minutes.

my first time.

2011-06-01T11:54:00.000-06:00

For the first time in my life I have decided to be completely daring (okay maybe this is like the third time). Over the last week or so I went on a decorating binge. I swept through every craft store and thrift store from here to Milwaukee. I found quite a few things I fell for. Every piece I found were things to decorate for my vintage whimsically old school unique Big Fishy wedding. Last night I dared to try painting and glazing. I have been told to start small so you can get a feel for how it all works. So I did. I went to the DI, and bought two really gold frames for a whopping $1.00!

I then bought some Krylon Gray primer, and Catalina Mist spray paint at Michaels arts and crafts.

I then went to Lowe's, which wasn't as up too par as usual. You know when you talk to sales rep. that just hates their job and you can tell, because they don't want to help you at all. That is how this feller was. I felt bad, and didn't want to waste his time, plus I actually needed someone who would help me since this was my first time. I cruised on over to Home Depot in my sweet 95' toyota corolla, Vern.

oh yes, Vern is hawt.

I let him stay in the parking lot, and ran in. This nice buddy-man helped me. I bought a quart of Behr Glaze, and a black paint sample (glaze comes clear, and you have to tint it if you want it to show up).

My rep was younger, cuter, and probably not a PRO. . . but I liked the quote. Way to go PRO sales associate!

Then you mix the glaze and paint sample like so ^^

I actually had to clean out a cottage cheesing old milk carton for like half an hour (almost barfed a few times), and then make my own funnel and I put the glaze and paint in the milk carton and shook it all up.

like so: bam bing bong shaka shook la shhhhake it. repeat.

End of the story practically.

Easy as 123.

I primed a few times.
I spray painted a few coats.
I glazed those picture frames till they were SEXY or old or whatever.

This is the before picture (kind of, I didn't take any so I googled gold frame)

These are the finished babies.

I used this tutorial: http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/2010/03/glazing-furniture-101.html

Josh Rossi is AWESOME!

2011-05-30T21:04:00.000-06:00

Our photographer is so amazing. Today he sent us a link to a bunch of unedited photos from our engagement shoot. You might remember all the craziness that happened from this post. Anyway, back to the story. Josh Rossi is an incredibly talented photographer. I know this, because he captured our wedding themes, Big Fish perfectly. I may not be a little redish blonde Sandra Templeton and Jared may not be the light brunette Edward Bloom. However, their love story radiates from our pictures. I am so excited to show all of you, my sweet fellow readers, the final products. I decided that I just cannot keep it a secret forever and ever, so I thought I would give you these few photos as a sneak peak.

Keep in mind that these photos didn't even make my top 10 out of 80 unedited photos that he gave us.

This one didn't even fit our Big Fish theme. I loved it though, the backdrop of Salt Lake City looks fake, but it TIS NOT!

Glazing. . . pray for me.

2011-05-26T22:16:00.000-06:00

I went out today and bought quite a few wedding decorations. Since I am doing the whimsical theme there will be lots of do it yourself decorations to wrap it all together. I bought a few picture frames, and i am going to try and glaze and paint them this weekend!

This is the tutorial I will use. Please send me love thoughts, and hope I'll do this well.

http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/2010/03/glazing-furniture-101.html

Trespassing in the name of Photography!

2011-05-24T13:06:00.000-06:00

I unfortunately do not have any pictures for you right now. I just wanted to express how happy I am that we chose the right photographer, Josh Rossi. Life is so good. Everything is going according to plan. Secondly, I am so grateful that the weather cooperated yesterday. The meteorologists said it was suppose to rain all day, and it didn't! So finally after rescheduling twice already, we were able to do our Big Fish themed photo shoot. Jared and I met up with Josh Rossi from Rossi photography at Gardner Village to start our shoot.

Josh is an awesome guy to work with. Neither Jared or I have ever really been in front of a camera before, and I was afraid it would be awkward, and then the pictures would suffer. However, within 15 minutes we were all laughing, and it was like hangin' out with buds. We stayed at Gardner Village for about 2 hours. In that time we stained my dress, and Jareds shirt. Jared almost fell into a lake, and Josh almost fell out of a tree. We became trolls of the bridge only allowing few to pass, and we also met some friends construction workers. Then we bounced before it started to sprinkle rain.

We were in route to Josh's studio.

Jared and I followed the wrong blue honda civic, and lost our guide Josh. When we realized we were not following him, but headed the opposite direction we called him. Eventually we met up with him at his studio to take some shots for the composite photos. We changed outfits, and really got to know each other. Jared and I each had our own 10 minutes to be complete dorks in front of the camera. It's a good thing Josh didn't choose to do this part first, because when you put somebody in front of a camera and a white backdrop and just say okay make poses, some weird things happen.

Next..

After the studio shot; we drove all the way downtown, and walked into a condo that we thought was SUPPOSE to be empty, twas not. We sat and made very awkward conversation for a few minutes. That poor lady was probably telling her husband at dinner later, " so this odd couple from the 1940's walked into our condo without knocking today, then slammed the door and tried to scurry away. . "

We found the empty condo with the CLAW tub of my dreams, and shot there for a few hours. Most shoots last about 2 hours, ours was 6! At the condo several interesting things happened; we invaded a woman's privacy, we trespassed, we shot photos in a tub, we hung out in a 700,000 downtown SALT LAKE condo, and Josh was able to beat up Jared, while I took the position of head photographer.

We had the best time. It was one of the best Monday's I can remember. Josh is an awesome and creative photographer!

Here's one of his featured photos that I adore. www.joshrossi.com

Can I get some fishing, birthdays and soccer to top it all off?

2011-05-16T13:18:00.000-06:00

May 8th was Jare- hound and Josh's birthday (the second set of twins). I always feel bad saying Jared's birthday, because Josh always deserves a shout out as well. They are twinners after all, and it would truly be rude to exclude Josh. Hence it was Jare hound and Josh's birthday last saturday. We decided it would be fun to do a cabin trip, and enjoy one of the first warm weather weekends.

Friday we went to a Murray Soccer game and hung out with some of the DeMann Clan and Shia, who did go down the slide at the playground and Murray Park. I told you that dog was crazy and adventurous [more on that later.] After the game we went up to stay the night and do ya know. . . cabin things.

We went Fishing

Clayton, Josh & Jared

Jared's fish.

Josh and Clayton.

The scenery is really beautiful, huge trees and the ocean like river.

Josh was being really nice to Shia, who was very curious.

A video of the fish:

We played Scrabble

Clayton won a match

Jared won the other.

We did a puzzle (not pictured here).

Then we decided we would stay for another night. We took Shia out through the woods, and all the snow was melting off the mountains so there were streams everywhere, and the rivers were really high. To say Shia loves water is an understatement, she goes completely nuts for water. She loves baths, loves snow, sprinklers, rain, you name if it is a form of water she LOVES it. She couldn't stay out of the puddles. We let her off her leash and the puppy went crazy! She jumped in every puddle, she ran at 200 mph trying to catch the water bouncing off her feet. ShiGuy would run with her mouth open so that the water would just spray into her mouth and she didn't have to stop for a drink. She was very entertaining, to say the least.

After we had worn out on Sunday afternoon we all parted and came back to town. I had bought Jared and Josh cupcakes for their birthday celebration but the frosting was all messed up from pressing against the container. I had to re-frost them. Can you tell what colors they were originally?

I also gave Jared a tent for his birthday, since we plan to go camping a lot this summer. Like in our summer's past. He had been wanting a new tent for quite some time, so of course, I found one on Amazon.com which is Jared and Mine's obsession.

Jare Hound and ShiGuy in the new addition.

Then this past weekend was Devin and Darla's birthday (the first set of twins). Jared and I decided to celebrate by getting front seat row tickets to the ReaL game. It was a fun game even though it ended in a tie. I am so much better at focusing when we are in the front row because I can actually see.

My feet showing how close we were. I could maybe jump on the field.

In wedding news: We are doing our engagement pictures this Friday. Our wedding theme is big fish so we decided to find a few of our favorite scenes from the movie and reenact them for our shoot. I am so excited to do this. I spent a few hours last Friday compiling places we could go around town and matching movie still with the places I found. I mapped out the location, postition, props and clothing that we would need to pull off this theme in a vintage classy way, not cheesy. Hopefully it turns out. I have faith is Josh Rossi. He is a great photographer.

Josh Rossi Photography

The biggest struggle is trying to find a way to do my hair. The scenes we chose from the movie have a vintage feel to them. This is the hairstyle I am thinking about trying, what do you think?

wedding photography.

2011-05-10T15:54:00.000-06:00

As many of you probably know I work around photography a lot. Which is very fun for my every day work life, but it has made me a little bit snooty with photographers. I definitely have my own style of photography that I like, and many more styles I don't like.

This was one of the hardest parts of coordinating my wedding. I have looked at probably 20 million photography website and didn't really love any of them, enough to have the shoot my wedding. Then a miracle happened. I went to the bridal show at South Town Expo Center. I fell in love. We set up a date to meet this photographer and decided he is the one.

Photography is such an important part of a wedding, because it is how you capture the whole day for the rest of your life. It is huge pressure on the photographer, and it is also a large amount of pressure on the bride and groom to pick the right one.

Our photographer was featured on UtahBrideBlogs.Com today for one of his last shoots.

Here is his website, he is awesome, check him out! Josh Rossi

Puppies galore!

2011-05-03T16:15:00.000-06:00

Wheaty just had puppies on Thursday (28th 2011). Wheaty is a pure bred english bulldog, and had a litter of 5! Which is a large litter for this breed of dogs, because they can't give birth naturally. They have small hips and the babies have too big of heads. Wheaty had to have a C- section, and only 3 of the litter survived.

They are the most precious little puppies. Every time I walk into the house I run downstairs to see them. Their umbilical cords fell off yesterday, and they should be able to open their eyes this weekend! I am already so attached to them; it's going to be hard when they start walking and developing personalities, because then I won't want to sell them.

If anyone is looking for an english bulldog, we have 3.

Story Telling.

2011-04-22T13:26:00.000-06:00

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a story teller. My mom has always told me what a story teller I was growing up. Most of my stories are embellished, what is wrong with that? If it makes people laugh and usually the facts are true only a few variables change.

Saying that... this is how Jared and I met, many have asked and only a few know the true story, here it is.

Ellen had come over to my house and we were extremely bored on the Thursday after Thanksgiving in 2008. We couldn't decide what to do, so we were sitting in my extremely large closet contemplating ideas when we decided that we might as well go party. It was a Thursday after all.

We arrive at the party and everyone was talking about some acoustic set they had just seen, and how incredible it was. We had no idea what they were talking about. Then two gentleman walk in the door. Chantel (the hostess) came up to Ellen and I telling us how extremely attractive Landon was. Chantel had a boyfriend at the time so she couldn't get in on that sweet piece. I wander over to Landon and his friend and start to make conversation. Landon and his friend were getting attention from a lot of girls, kind of annoying when I was trying to make small talk about the weather. I realized that Landon and his friend, Jared were THE acoustic set and everyone at the party was here for them! Soon after that realization I became very shy and became engulfed in a crowd of young ladies wanting to be a local legend's fling.

I scurried downstairs where it was far less chaotic. I ran into a guy I was kind of avoiding for reason that need not to be mentioned. Making awkward conversation I was trying to ease out of his personal bubble. I hear footsteps coming down the stair and Jared pops his head around the corner. He walks over to me and takes me to the couch. I immediately felt relieved to be out of the prior situation. Jared and I spent close to 4 hours playing a hand roulette game. I won.

I went upstairs to refill my Cheetos, and when I came down Jared was gone. My heart sunk into my high heels. What did I really know about the kid anyway? It would have been one of those scenarios where people would probably see us together and be like why is the hot male dating that lumpin' female.

After realizing Jared was gone I decided it was time to bail. Ellen decided she was going home with her bloke, so we separated. On my way home I get a text from an unknown number that went something like this . .

"so Mickey like the mouse right?"

I replied, "No. Miki like the not mouse"

Ellen forgot to tell me she gave Jared my number.

Jared then went on to tell me he worked at Southern Exposure. I had to ask my mom what southernX was and that's when I learned there are full nude clubs in Utah. Moving On. Jared was a loan officer not a stripper. We became a couple 4 months later. And now 2 years and 5 months after our original meeting we are planning our wedding.

Jared now plays in a Metal Band, Trail the Axe.

His acoustic partner and best friend Landon, passed away January 2011.

Time changes things doesn't it?

Wedding Dress Spectacular!

2011-04-18T15:00:00.000-06:00

I ordered my dress on Sunday. I am so excited, I have that feeling like when you have to pee really bad, but have to hold it. Except for it's going to be like this for like a month, until I get it. Dontcha hate that? I certainly do.

I looked at A LOT of dresses, before finding one that I fell in love with. I have decided, unlike everything else, this will be a secret. Except my mom, dad and Jared have seen the dress. To the rest of you it will be a big hush hush secret though!

These are ones I looked at before decided on mine, all of which are beautiful, but I didn't pick any of these. . . .

I love this bottom.

Does this remind anyone else of Kate Hudson dress on Bride Wars?

Me Too.

I like it.

It looks a lot like my prom dress.

I love the bottom.

Love the one strap. It is so sexy.

This dress it hot.

I would feel like a cake in this dress.

A beautiful cake.

Isn't this bottom absolutely gorgeous?

I love the flow.

I love the ribbon too.

Now for the kicker, most the things I thought I loved about all these dresses, my dress does not have. It is so beautiful that it immediately took my breath away when I saw it. I know the second I put it on all altered and fitted, that I will cry. I am a cry baby, but life is good.

Do you ever?

2011-04-13T18:10:00.000-06:00

Fall in love over and over again? Sunday Pam (Jared's mom) and I were going through baby pictures of him, so that I could make our wedding slideshow. I swear each picture I saw, each story I heard, just took me back to the very first time Jared tricked me into saying "I love you" first. It went like this . . . "hey miki, do you love me" Then I got really shy and had a rather large pacman frog in my throat and managed to whimper out, "yes." He said, "good, i love you too." What a trickster, always cheating the system, this one!

Or I think about our first kiss, which was incredibly awful. Sorry to break it to you, but it was so bad that both of us laugh about it know. We were in such awkward positions and are heads couldn't quite match and it was yucky and basically a slop salad.

Many other things too, that make me think how perfect he is. Sometimes I think about how my parents/ pam&brian feel about their babies gettin' old, growin' up, hitchin' down. I imagine it's like flashbacks of us growing up and how time goes by so fast. . . Is it like that?

Anyway, here is my lover head. . . he is a twin, josh is the bald twin, jared is the hairy. I am only going to show a few, I'll let some people have something to look forward to at the wedding.

"Every time I try and

Tell her how I feel

It comes out "I love you"

You got whatever it is"

Baby Jared Pumpkin Brains

Jared, Josh

Josh >> Jared

Jared >> Josh

Jare. .

Now he's all grown up:

Dedicated to my godfather, Ron Caso.

2011-04-07T23:12:00.000-06:00

Dear Bad Ronald,

I watched that with Jared in Mexico. He LOVED it. I'm so glad you introduced that to my family, that is why you are my godfather.

Secondly, thanks for supporting me throughout this difficult challenge. It proves to be a good use of time, if at least you are reading my blog. Tell all your friends, like Ross from friends, since you went to college with him. Even though you didn't like Mr. David Schwimmer.

Here goes everything:

11. What, if anything, is too serious to be joked about? . . . I think that everything is a joke politics, controversial questions, abortion, everything! (sarcasm should have been sensed by now.)
12. What 3 adjectives might other people use to describe your personality? . . . spunky, loveable, and unique
13. Who would who choose to be shipwrecked on a desert island with? . . . Shia (she wouldn't survive here in UT without me.)
14. What is your idea of a perfect romantic evening? . . . I would love to go on a boat ride in a little river, and by boat ride I clearly mean a canoe stroll, while listening to Will Smith.
15. If you were to be remembered for one thing, what would you like it to be? . . . I would like to be known for just paying it forward. I try very hard to be kind to everyone I come in contact with, and to keep an optimistic attitude all the time. It has made such a magnificent change in my life.
16. If you were guaranteed honest responses to any three questions, whom would you question, and what would you ask them?
- All my clients. Do you enjoy working with me? What could I change to make your experience with FnA better?
- Mom. Hey mom, do you really love Shia?
- My little bro's ex. WHY?
17. If you saw someone shoplifting, what would you do? . . .Tell a store associate? Yes, I'd be a tattle.
18. Is there anything you would willingly give your life for? . . . Jared, Mom, Dad, Brennon, Jared's family, definitely Elsie or Colt.
19. If you could re-live a day of your life again, which would it be and why? . . . The day I met Jare hound, because then I would remember it better knowing how momentous it would actually be.
20. If you could be invisible for a day, what would you do? . . . I would sneak into every place that has turned me down for not being 21! I'll show you! And the zoo and lagoon, because I love those places, but don't like to pay. :)

Ron, I hope you're proud.

You know how it goes.

2011-04-07T13:07:00.000-06:00

Some days you wake up in really good mood for no reason, and you really should have woke up in a bad mood, because a STORM is about to hit you hard.

With that said, I woke up in a fairly good mood one day (I can't even remember which day, because this week has been so insanely stressful). I procrastinated on doing my math homework, so I had 12 assignments due before this morning, which sucked. So one night I was working on math and Jared was like "hey mikles, I need to tell you something." I was like oh shi....

My frist reaction was accurate, because then I was told that gorgeous hose we rented for our wedding backed out, breeched the contract, flipped their nickel, however you want to put it. The basics is that we were back to square one. Of course, Jared being himself already had lined up 3 different houses he loved.

Turns out, I loved one a lot more than our last one. It is up past Sundance. The view is breathtaking, the drive is remarkably gorgeous, you don't even feel like you are in UT. HUGE trees surrounded us, the lodge is so secluded and beautiful. I can't even stand it. Turns out, I probably shouldn't have cried for 3 hours, because this place makes me 1000 times more excited to get married.

Life is so good. Except I think I failed my math test. Which is not good.

This is the top layer of the backyard. A lot bigger than it looks, but just take in that view for a moment here.

Take It All In! Beautiful.

Sleepy Stolen Cars

2011-04-05T13:45:00.000-06:00

Sunday night, I woke up at least once every 3 hours and I kept looking at the clock wishing that it were still 11pm and I had plenty of wonderful, relaxing hours of sleep ahead of me.

That was a fairytale though, time actually does move when you can't sleep well, who knew? My alarm clock goes off (Jareds Voice) "Mikles, wake your little ass up." I snooze it for about an hour so every 5 minutes for an entire hour, which amounts to about 12 times! Jared's voice keeps repeating "wake your little ass up." So eventually I drag my self out of bed. So sleepy. At this point I only had about 40 minutes to get to my first morning class and it takes me close to 30 minutes to get there, including parking, of course. BTW if I knew how hard it was to find a parking spot in a college, I probably would have decided never to go to school. It is literally like trying to find a lost earring back in grey-ish long carpet.

I somehow manage to shake my legs hard enough during my next few classes to keep my blood circulating and therefor my eyes stay open. Which to my teachers looks like I am understanding their valuable information, but my brain is clearly thinking about how much caffeine I will need to consume to get me through the day.

Sitting at my desk at work, I have my headphones in and blasting with a GIANT 16 oz (lots for me) rockstar sitting next to me. I am drinking it so fast that I had to pee at least 11 times within 6 hours.

Finally the time rolls around where I can leave and go home. I am so excited to go home and take nap. But instead I had this better idea, a nice warm shower. Then I can just relax while the water massages my sleepy muscles and I don't have any distractions. How wonderful. I jump in the shower and instead of my beautiful vision, my whole shower is spent trying to keep Shia out. She is relentless! Every time I push her down she jumps up and she chews on the shower curtain so hard that it nearly falls twice! If I ignore her, she starts barking at me. SERENITY NOW!

Close to 3 hours later, Shia is asleep so I put her in her kennel. I jump in the shower for the second time that day and it was magnificent. All my worries washed away, my sleepy muscles were starting to relax, I may have even slept for a few minutes. It was magical. I couldn't believe how much better I felt. It felt like when you lay out in the hot summer sun you can feel your skin heat up and the stress leave, no homework hovering over your head, no pressing deadlines, nothing to worry about.

What a good ending to such a tired day.

On a side note: Brennon my darling brother, got his car named Rod stolen Sunday night. Can you believe that? I always wonder what type of people do this. Brennon works so hard and is worth so much more than what he gets paid (aren't we all?). A poor college student living on his own, with dreams of nice cars, a big house, maybe a yacht to share. AND NOW he has no car. What do they expect him to do? No real savings, definitely not enough to purchase a car. Stupid thieves, so if anyone sees a green Honda accord driving around SLC, please return. Gratis.

some many choices, so many moons!

2011-03-28T16:30:00.000-06:00

Jared asked me where I wanted to go for our honeymoon. It may be hard to choose a name for myself, but when you are presented with a question like (how I heard it anyway), "Miki, we are going on a vacay no matter what, the sky is limit, where do you wanna go?"

This is what my mind thinks up:

1st of course (anyone who really truly knows me can guess this one):

Galapagos Islands, because for my entire life I have wanted to see a marine iguana, I swear on mine, shia's and jareds life that I will go here before I die.

Next: FIJI! I have wanted to go here for a long time. It looks amazing, and now that I am scuba certified, I can't find a good reason not to go, except that it is oober expensive.

Australia: Who doesn't want to go here? I think 96% of mankind wants to see a Kangaroo and Koala, any marsupial would do actually.

Costa Rica: My cousin married my cousin-in-law Raquel, and she is from Costa Rica. When I was little she used to show me pictures of Costa Rica. It made me want to go there so bad. This actually a real option. I would love to take in the beautiful beaches and mangos.

Santorini, Greece: Not necessarily Santorini. Greece has always captivated me, because my name is Greek, Alexandria. Plus I also will go to Greece before I die, because I am in love with art history and it all started here in Greece.

Where else should we be looking into? We want to book soon so we can get a deal on flights, they aren't too bad right now. Where did you go, where do you want to go? Tell me all!

The only place we don't really want to go is Mexico because we are VERY fortunate that both our families go ever year, so we already have 2 trips planned to Mexico.

Sneak Peek!

2011-03-24T15:49:00.000-06:00

Everything seems to just fall into the correct place lately. No giant hamsters or tiny rhino's have come across my path yet (which is a good thing) even though, I probably wouldn't mind meeting a tiny rhino.

Jared and I are officially getting married August 26th. We have a place rented for 2 days (august 26th morning -28th morning), so our immediate families are going to get a nice weekend getaway for our wedding. It was important to me that the DeMann's and Loveless' are able to get to know each other, as they will be in-laws as soon as Jared and I tie the knot.

eeek! I am so excited. Life is good. Shia is no longer going to have to deal with a custody battle, she can live with her human mom & dad.

Anyway. Jared would KILL me if I showed off the entire place/ inside/location, because it is half a surprise to all our friends. Anyone that wants to be involved definitely will be! I need lots of help, as if that isn't apparent.

I am already thinking of talents that my friends/ families have, that I can take advantage of. Please let me know if you have a hidden/ widely shown talent because I honestly want everyone to be involved so that ONE AND ALL can have a good time and own part of the wedding.

sneak peak: - ok so Jared threw me down the stairs after he saw that I posted pics of the house, so I altered them. . .

a waterfall in the front

Some of the backyard. . . SOME

This is where I will put my amphibians that want to attend our wedding.

eeepers! my wedding stairs in the back, i may or may not be in love.

a little of our house, a very little sneak peak

eep. I've already shared too much.

On another note. I found the most adorable engagement video to this song and I am absolutely in love with the video and this song.

Last but not least:

If anyone knows of awesome vendors they used for the wedding, or that are families/ friends, let me know!!

Name Choices.. help!!

2011-03-21T13:22:00.000-06:00

Some of you may think it is hard to name a child, and let me tell you it's not! I have already named both of my future children (Jared and I came up with them together - no worries) My one boy and one girl, that was easy.

Here is my dilemma, what do I name myself.

Now that Jared and I are engaged (eeek! :) :) times 10,000) I have to decide what my new name will be. I absolutely LOVE my last name, Loveless. I am very attached to it and all the very clever jokes that come along with it. On the other end, DeMann (Jared's last name) also has great jokes that are equally clever that come along.

My name is already very long (25 letters!) Alexandria Mikhail Loveless, and I simply go by Miki. Even though I've never gone by anything but Miki, I am also very attached to the Alexandria Mikhail part.

So then I say do I become Alexandria Mikhail Loveless DeMann (so long!)

Drop everything and say: Miki Loveless DeMann

Bye bye middle: Alexandria Loveless DeMann

Do I just rid of Loveless: Alexandria Mikhail DeMann

Oh my goodness, I seriously think this will be the hardest part of planning the wedding. What to do? What to do? HELP!

Proposal Story :)

2011-03-14T13:38:00.000-06:00

Okay so sometimes I give up my blog challenge when I get engaged. Stuff happens right :) ? A lot of people have been inquiring how this beautiful ring happened to find my finger, so here is the story:

For weeks Jared and I had been planning to go up to Park City and meet one of his clients for dinner that was in town. Friday (march 4th) Jared and I both got off work a little early so that we could get to the his client's hotel on time. I got to Shia a little before Jared and laid down, because I hadn't slept very well the night before. I ended up falling asleep and was suppose to have Shia ready by the time Jared got there. Needless to say he came home and I was scrambling around like a loose bean trying to get all Shia's toys and food together. We get here to my parents and literally drop her off and just bounce. We had 20 minutes to make a 50 minute drive.

We get to the client's hotel 8 minutes late (we may or may not have sped). We get to the splendid restaurant Shabu Shabu (highly recommended, most delicious food I've ever had in Park City). It is like melting pot, but much better.

Anyway around 10pm we finally check into our hotel. The New Park Hotel which was also an incredible experience. We check in and the guy gives us a parking permit and we walk up to our room. The entire place was lit up with open fire pits and flat screen TVs, it had 90% of windows for walls so you could see all of park city no matter where you were at in the hotel. We get to our room and we have a quaint room with a big beautiful fire place and a comfy couch. Immediately I turn on Chelsea Lately and curl up by the fire place in a big down comforter.

Jared being Classy, in our room.

My favorite spot, the fireplace!

Jared ran out to put his permit in the car, and came back up with a big white box. I open it up and there are 2 darling shirts and a bracelet. He said he wanted to thank me, just because. He does really sweet things quite often lately so I wasn't expecting anything. Then he tells me to open a card (he NEVER does cards), so the first card was a really sweet card about how much he misses me when I'm not there (it was not his writing, it was hallmark). It was like an 8 page flip book, then he had slipped another little card at the end and asked me to read it aloud, so I was reading it to him and it talked about 2 1/2 years ago when we first had met up until the future he saw us having together. I, of course, was already crying (because I am a baby like that.)

I turned around and he had his big red eyes from holding back tears and asked me to marry him with the ring out. I hugged him lots and cried lots. Throughout that night I'd wake up and look at my hand and wake Jared up and say, "Jare, I'm crying again!" That's what my life has been like for the last week, I'm a baby!

Side Note: I ran over my phone the next morning, after I sent out the "we're engaged!" text, so no one be offended if I didn't write back! :)

He had asked my parents & his parents in advance and both were thrilled with the idea. :)

Jared saw my ring from an email his sister, Betsy, had sent a few months prior. He had looked into who the designer was and they were some foreign Italian company that wouldn't sell to private buyers. So of course, Jared cheated the system. He printed the picture out and took it to Limb Jewelers and requested they make it for me. They were against it at first because it's a little design heavy. But they ended up doing it anyway, and finished it the Friday he proposed to me! He was able to see the ring made from wax, how cool is that?!

Also I've been getting a lot of this, "Did Jared sell his house to afford that diamond!?" The story behind the rock:
Jared found my diamond on a jewelry pawn website, it was attached to a really UGLY golden ring, so he bought the ring for half the price of what the diamond is worth and had it cleaned and shined and melted the gold for some cash as well. That's my boy, always thinking outside the box!

Limb Jewelers did an awesome job, but mostly my Jared did.

It is a tensions Diamond, so you can see the diamond, from every angle, thanks to the little peering windows on both sides :)

Inventions:

2011-03-04T15:55:00.000-07:00

What is the most important invention or innovation that has happened during your life-time?
the ipod.

{me listening to my ipod at work today}

How would you spend your ideal day?
Wake up in a beach side villa then go scuba diving. I would then layout for a few hours and then hit up some cute little vendor and get some cheese quesidillas, all with jared.

{Scuba Diving in Cozumel}