The Grand Tour

Oh why hello. I know this is the moment you have all been waiting for, a grand circle tour of my humble abode; but before you go turning your nose up at my beautiful yellow counter tops let me remind you that when you are a beggar you cannot also be a chooser.

 

 

My lovely kitchen. Bright yellow counter tops, pansy wallpaper above the cabinets, and green carpet. When home I like to spend the majority of my time with that crockpot in the corner and also the kitchen sink. Our dish washer is kind of scary on the inside, so I have boycotted it.  

 

 

Now if we walk down the hallway and to our left we will enter our living room. Nathan is lounging peacefully on our couch, checking his e-mails. The chandelier is a nice touch if you're not 6' 3", clutzy, and wack your head on it every time you stand up. I believe normally this room is supposed to be a dining room but we decided we wanted to watch TV in it. The coffee table was 12 bucks at Wal-Mart. If you are a newly wed I would highly reccommend the Wal-Mart furniture section. Fairly attractive sidetables and coffee tables for cheap cheap cheap to get you by until you are grazing from greener pastures.

 

 

My favorite wall of the entire house and so I could not leave it out of our tour today. This is on the opposite side of the living room. I like the little shelves and drawers to keep pictures, books, movies and the like. Very nice, very organizational.

 

 

Our bedroom. The log bed was donated by my grandparent's barn. It took some cleaning up and painting to make it look presentable but now I am rather fond of it.

 

 

And lastly the master bathroom. Don't mind the overflowing garbage can please. Instead marvel at the highly attractive floral wallpapering and gathered blue curtains. I'm not entirely sure why but there's about three other mirrors on the other wall. Why someone would need 70 mirrors in their bathroom is beyond me. However I quite like it despite the fact I have to gaze at myself no matter what direction I turn.

 

So there ya have it folks, Hartshorn Headquarters. We feel quite blessed to be here, and even though the 1970's circa stylings aren't quite what I would choose, it definitely feels like home... except for the basement... I have developed what you would call a bit of a phobia of it. I have determined that  gremlins live down there and so I never venture down those dark, cold, creaky steps.

 

Paint and Chicken Wire

Greetings my friends. I recently completed a project I have been wanting to do for a very long time. I desperately wish that I had taken pictures of the step by step process but I got a bit carried away in my excitement and unfortunately only took a picture of the completed project.

I promise I made it all by myself though. Well... Nathan cut the chicken wire for me, but the fact that it is not store bought is what I am getting at here.

VOILA!!

 

 

For all of you ladies out there who enjoy earrings as much as I do, you probably have found that a proper storage technique is difficult to come by. Inspired by a similar jewelry holder I once saw at a friends house, I decided to venture out and create my own for my vast earring collection.

 

The recipe is as follows:

 

1 frame of any shape and size

1 bottle of acrylic paint (if not already desired color)

several sheets of scrapbook paper for the background

1 paint brush

3 sq. feet of chicken wire

several small nails

wire cutters

 

Step One: Paint frame, if necessary.

Step Two: Apply scrapbook paper to inside of frame, discard any glass.

Step Three: Cut chicken wire to fit about 1/2 inch around the outside of the inner part of the frame.

Step Four: Nail and stretch chicken wire.

Step Five: Hang up jewelry and earrings.

Step Six: Marvel at your new (and cute!) organizational methods.





 

A closer look at how the chicken wire is attached

The Honeymoon

They say a girl spends her entire life planning her wedding day, and a boy spends his entire life planning the wedding night. This may or may not be true.

 

One thing is for sure though, the honeymoon is a time to escape all worldly cares and enjoy your new life with your brand new spouse, no matter who plans it.

 

Nathan and I decided to run off to California for a week to the happiest place on earth - Disneyland, we also found the time to hop over to Laguna Beach and Hollywood Blvd as well. I don't think I have ever seen more cheap, dirty, tacky lingerie stores as I did on Hollywood Blvd. It's like you think the streets are gonna be paved in gold, lined with all sorts of theaters and movie stars walking everywhere. But no. Think bras with metal spikes on them. Ew.

 

Anyway, Disneyland.

 

 

 

What a great time was had on the various rides, as you can see from the picture above, the carousel was our favoritest.

 



 

 

Laguna Beach. A paradisiacal town full of sunshine, beached seaweed and expensive sunglasses.

 

 

 



 

Indiana Jones is Nathan's favorite.

 

 

If I were to go back I would have stayed about three more days, but the time we were able to enjoy in SoCal was absolutely delightful.  

The Reception

Highlights in pictures (as opposed to words).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Day Off

Although in actuality today was a thursday, it felt like a saturday because Nathan and I both had the day off. Being the rotating shift worker that I am I rarely get to see a true weekend and so sometimes it's nice to pretend that other days of the week are instead.

We decided to take a trip over to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and go on a delightful sleigh ride through herds of thousands of elk on a nice little national refuge.

 

Getting up close and personal with the elkies.

 

All warm and snug in our sleigh.

 

 

 



These pictures don't really do the whole deal justice but literally there are THOUSANDS of  elk on this refuge, and they'll let you ride right up next to them. It was pretty cool, I cannot say at any other time in my life have I been three feet away from a live bull elk. Definitely worth the eighteen bucks, and the freezing temperatures.

 

The Temple

Every young mormon girl is bred from birth to believe that getting married in the temple should be the ultimate goal of any woman. Seeing as how I was brought up in a mormon home I too was bred to believe such a thing. However it was not until I was actually there within the temple on my wedding day that I realized why that should be the ultimate goal.

 

 

As I walked into the bride's room and looked around and marveled at the beautiful decor and sparkling chandeliers I truly felt like a VIP, or a princess - whichever you prefer. It was right then that I thought to myself, I would seriously not want to get married in any other way!

 

And that same exact feeling came to me over and over again as I knelt across the alter and was sealed to my sweetheart and then again as I walked out of the temple, hand in hand to meet our families.

 

If I were to sum up marriage in one word it would be peaceful.

 

Think of it this way, dating is fun, but also kind of scary, and stressful. Granted, yes you could also use those same exact words to describe marriage but in much different doses.

 

Dating is like 10 parts stress, 10 parts scary, and maybe 6 parts fun.

 

Marriage is 10 parts fun, 1 part scary and varying numbers on the stress factor, I'd say it ranges between 1-5.

 

Maybe being married for only 3 weeks doesn't exactly make me an authority on the subject, but seriously marriage is AWESOME. I would reccommend it to everyone. I have felt so much joy and so much sweetness and so much peace to know that I am bound to the one that I love forever, and I never have to worry again about being alone. We are sealed together within heavenly bounds that cannot be undone as long as we live worthily, and that knowledge alone gives me greater happiness that I have ever known previously.

 

Joy can be found on this earth in large doses by building relationships, by loving others. The most fulfillment I have ever found is with my marriage to Nathan. I am so excited to continue to build on that and to build our family.

 

Now enjoy some lovely pictures

 

 

 

 



Love and Marriage

// Married 12/29/12
// We like to hide away inside our little red log house because temperatures are currently sub-zero. It hurts my face too bad to walk outside. Try living in eastern Idaho for a winter. I dare you.
// We like being married. We actually love being married. It's a lot better than not being married, I will say that.
// Working full time is exhausting but also very satisfying. I just got hired as a checker at the local grocery store. Come visit me. I am currently trying to memorize produce codes. Would you like paper or plastic?
// My husband is a hottie.

I would love to stick around and elaborate on the many wonders of married life; however I am weary and must get some shut eye. Now that we have internet blogging is back in business though!! Woot woot.