Summer Time!

Finally it feels like summer is here in Rexburg!!!  

We got moved and mostly settled into our new place.  It was a bit of an adjustment going from the old place to here but I think we enjoy it here a lot as well!  We love having a few of the amenities this place has to offer, such as a garage and a spare room, but I think our favorite right now is having a dishwasher.  Wow.  I never realized how much time we spent doing dishes until we moved here.  I don't think we could ever go without one ever again!!

When we moved Steven decided he didn't want to move our old junky couch into this new place so we shopped around a bit and bought ourselves some new couches.  I like them!  They look really nice and are really comfy and since we are the first owners we hope they will last a looooong time!

New couches!!

This new place also includes a propane grill out in the back yard!  Steven has enjoyed getting to use it.  It's just outside the kitchen window so we just pop out the screen and pass food in and out as he cooks and I prep it.  Enjoy this lovely photo of Steven rinsing his hands off after putting some delicious steaks on the grill the other night.

Convenient? Yes!

Steak dinner!

We also enjoy how close we are to friends by moving!  Last night the guys went over to the neighbors to have a guys night and I had their wives over for a girls night.  We painted nails and made peach cobbler together and had a great time catching up and getting some good girl talk in!  It's nice to be able to do that more often now we are all so much closer.

My girls!

Peach cobbler

Things have been going well with my internship! I finished this dress my mentor wanted me to create and I am pretty proud of how it turned out!!  I am excited to get started on my next few projects.  I had a client contact me this week and ask if I could turn the train of her wedding dress into a blessing dress for her new baby that's on the way.  I just told her I'd have to meet her and see the dress she has and the blessing dress she has in mind.  I am kind of excited to be working with a paying client as well!

Steven is still doing the school thing and working a lot and I seem to have accumulated more hours than I initially wanted but I think it's a blessing in disguise because even with the move and purchasing new couches we are still doing good financially.  We are actually the managers here at this new place so we do get paid to keep up the yard and the house (which is a WONDERFUL change for not getting paid to do ANYTHING at our old place!).  Our landlords are awesome!  It has been a great change for us overall!

We got registered for classes for this fall.  I got a scholarship so I am registered for a full 14 credit load. Most of my classes are just for fun though because I only had about 3 classes I could take towards my degree this semester.  So after this semester I should be a pro at building my eternal marriage, a pro swimmer, and a pro nutritionist!  Woo!!  Electives!

Until next time!

Catching Up!

Wow. Life changes so fast! Since my last post we have decided to move! Crazy, right? I know. I think we are a little nuts too. However, this will be good for us.  I am slightly bummed because summer at this little house is lots of fun but I am excited to be closer to town, school, work, and friends!

To back up a bit… I am not a mother yet, nor plan to be anytime soon, but Steven made mother’s day a little bit special for me this last month.  He made dinner and everything.  It was nice.  They bishopric gave out REALLY good chocolate bars for Mother’s Day as well.  They were delicious!

We got Steven some new glasses.  We had intended to for a while now and finally after his glasses finally got so bent out of shape, we just went and got some.  Don’t they look so nice?

My internship has been lots of fun.  I started out working on this homecoming dress to see if I could sell it to this local formal rental place.  We’ll see how it turns out and if they buy it or not.  I am excited to see how that goes!  My work on it has been put on hold for now because my mentor has had other things for me to work on in the meantime that are slightly more urgent so this is all I have so far of the top part… Once a week I also go to my other mentor’s place and she shows me more of the alterations side of things.  I have learned how to hem dress pants (in large quantities) and take in waistbands for those pants from the Missionary Mall.  It just makes me want to get all this expensive equipment for myself.  Maybe someday.  The Missionary Mall actually provides her equipment for her, which is cool.  It would be awesome to get in with that kind of set up!  (Not to also mention that it makes decent money!)

Steven’s been taking his first communication design class this semester!  My kind of thing!  It’s been fun helping him learn the Adobe software and to hear him comment on other photos and design work when we are out now.  I even caught a snapshot of him using my fancy camera!!!  Photographer in training!  Woo!

As for our house and our move…  So far I have had a few people interested and a couple of them will come look at our old place this week.  We signed the lease and got the keys to our new place already so now it’s just time to pack, and get this place taken care of.  Thankfully our lease here was up so we aren’t obligated to pay rent here but we are trying our hardest to help out our land lady to find someone to move in.  She is about 90 years old and starting to lose her mind a bit so we are helping as much as we can.  Like I mentioned, we have a couple people looking at it this week so hopefully someone will take it!  I mean, other than being a ways out of town (which is what we loved so much about it in the first place) there’s not much else keeping people away.  It’s cheap rent, your OWN place—nothing shared or whatever.  Private outdoor space.  What’s not to like?  Steven figures someone will take it once they see the inside and stuff because it is a pretty nice place.  And for a one bedroom place it’s bigger than most apartments in town! 

I feel like there is so much more to talk about but that’s all I can think of for now.  Work is good, Steven’s doing alright with school, and the weather has finally turned into summer!

Until next time!

School, Work, and EASTER!

Steven started school again today.  He is taking a few online classes and just one class on campus.  He wasn't too excited to get back into school but we are on the downhill slope now! WOO!!!  And I'll be honest… I am MORE than GRATEFUL that I am off-track this semester.  Boy, did I need a break!!!

My man is back to school!

For Easter we really didn't do anything special… We just had a nice dinner (Steven cooked… which made it even NICER!) and I made some fun cupcakes to celebrate.  Steven's family doesn't really have any Easter traditions and my family really only did a few of the ones for us when we were small, so we didn't do much.  

Easter dinner

A couple weeks ago I threw a few maxi skirts together really quick--mostly because I needed something to wear to Sam and Kayla's wedding and I had lots of fabric from L.A. Here's the one I wore to the wedding.

I have started waiting on tables at work now and I think it's way fun!  Especially the earning tips part!!! It's fun to get to take home a handful of cash after work!  

Today the weather has been so nice!!! I am so excited for warmer weather! Steven even pointed out that he thought it was warmer outside than in our house today! WOO!! Time to open all the windows and let the sun pour in!!!  I can't wait to get out and play in the warm weather and get some of our yard work done!

Until next time!

Recovery Time!

Wow… These last few weeks have been INSANE!!!  I just finished up finals last week and then we spent the weekend in Utah for our friend's Sam & Kayla's wedding.  I feel like it's taken me almost 2 full days just to recover from it all!!

Since my last post lots has changed actually.  I went on my trip to LA and had a blast!  I bought so much fabric from the fabric district (SOOOO CHEAP!!!!) and would have lots of pictures to share from that trip, but unfortunately my camera was stolen the last night we were there… So alas, I don't have very many pictures, just the ones I did take on my phone. But I met some great people that have been successful in my field and I got to learn a lot from them! 

So since the camera incident I bought a new camera from a girl here that was graduating and didn't want to move it.  I love it and am grateful for Steven for encouraging me to get it.  Especially because I was the photographer for this wedding we went to this weekend.  That was a fun experience as well and I am excited to add that to my portfolio!

Also, the day I left for LA I had a job interview at The Hickory (one of our favorite local restaurants) and I got a new job!!! YAY!!! I am on the serving staff so occasionally I work on the cash register/hostess and sometimes back in the kitchen on, what they call, Expo (Basically I do whatever needs to be done that the servers don't have time to do during their busier nights).  So far I love it!  The people I work with are great and it is probably the busiest job I have had so far.  I am actually going to start training to be a waitress this week!

Steven still works a lot and hopefully will be able to balance work with school next week when he starts Spring semester.  Thankfully I am off track so I can help him more with school this time around.  I will however have an internship starting on Monday as well working with alterations and designing my own clothes.  It will be lots of fun!

Here are some pictures I thought I'd share.  Enjoy!

My plants poking through back in March!

The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising fashion show!!

Outside the museum in LA

Diane Von Furstenburg exhibit at the museum

Trolly at The Grove mall 

Our fabric we fit in our van!

Fashion District downtown LA

My final design for Pattern Making

Finished product for my final design (on the right is me at the fashion show)

Still have no clue what to do with all this fabric… :)

The rest are just some pictures from the wedding.  Enjoy!!

Until next time!

Out with the old…

Steven and I have been sleeping on his old bed he had since high school while we saved up to buy our own.  Well, thanks to our diligent saving AND our tax return… WE FINALLY HAVE A NEW BED!!  Thank goodness!  While I was super grateful we had a bed in the first place (and it was free) it is so nice to get a little bit bigger, and WAY more comfortable bed of our own!  It's also a monumental occasion for us because it's the first big purchase we have made together!!

Here it is in all it's glory!!!! 

My handsome model!

I guess I needed a turn modeling it too. Like my outfit? :P

We got a memory foam hybrid bed (meaning instead of being 100% foam it has a layer of springs amongst the bottom-most layer of foam that is supposed to help increase the life of the memory foam).  And Oh. My. Gosh. Is it comfy!! I haven't slept this good in quite a while!  It's also a queen size rather than the full we had which didn't seem too much bigger but those few extra inches REALLY make a difference!  We aren't constantly bumping into each other as we sleep now and thanks to the memory foam--we hardly move or turn over throughout the night!  And if you do the bed doesn't move much at all so we don't disturb each other's sleep anymore! Yay!!!  We also opted for this bed frame that basically replaced the need for a box spring so it gives us around 14-17 inches of storage UNDER the bed which is nice and is SUPER easy to fold and unfold and becomes quite compact which will be great for moving especially since we only will have the mattress to move and no box spring! Win-win!

This week they have finally displayed our designs in the library here on campus! Here is my little dress I posted last time in it's display glory!

I think it's cuter on the mannequin… But here it is!

That's all for now! Until next time!

Early Signs of Spring Fever

February and March are always the worst around here because the weather teases us so badly!! The sun will come out and shine for a few days, then we get days like today that are super windy and have been rainy.  At least the snow is pretty much gone and there hasn't been any more recently.  *crosses fingers*

Since the weather hadn't been so bad we went with some friends to go shooting this last weekend.  It was fun to get out in the sunshine even though it was still pretty cold.

Here's a fun little video of us blowing up some stuff… Please ignore my terrible laughter at the end of this clip…

Other than that our life has been pretty normal/boring.  I am gearing up to go on a trip to L.A. in a couple weeks for a school field trip.  It's a senior trip for those in my major.  I think only 4 or 5 of us are going so it'll be lots of fun!  We are hitting up a bunch of famous fashion museums as well as attending a real fashion show!  Super stoked for that!  I promise to take as many pictures as I can and share!  In the meantime, enjoy my latest design!

My original design! (it's a half scale version)

Steven and I have been trying to eat healthier lately as well.  Steven's family is doing a little weight loss competition which they started back in January, but after a few weeks of eating not-so-healthy on a regular basis, I figured it's time for us to jump on board.  Steven has been losing weight regardless because of his job but I am either at school or sitting at my office job so it's been a different story on my end.  Thankfully Steven is super supportive of my desire to be healthier and to slim back down to wedding weight (maybe even then some).  I have even signed up to meet with a personal fitness consultant here at BYU-Idaho to keep me accountable for getting to the gym.

Salmon with broccoli and salad! Delicious AND super healthy!

On another note, I saw this sticker on the back of a car in front of me yesterday.  It may not seem like much but it brightened my day and reminded me that I decide what mood I am in.

Until next time!

Valentine's Day

This year we kept Valentine's Day pretty chill.  We couldn't really top last year--seeing that Steven and I got engaged last Valentine's Day.  We just went out to our favorite restaurant here in town and then went home and made brownies and had those with ice cream for dessert.  

The next day we spent most of our time at the temple since we hadn't been in a few weeks.  It was nice to spend time together there.  After our session we had the opportunity to go perform sealings and that was super fun to do together and reminded me of all the promises I made to Steven the day we were married.  After we were done at the temple we had the privilege to listen to Elder D. Todd Christoffersen at a fireside for the married students.  We sat fairly close to the front and we had the chance to go meet him and shake his hand!  

Waiting for Elder Christoffersen's fireside to start!

Thankfully these past couple of days have been warm enough that the snow is beginning to melt!  We are both so ready for it to be warm outside (bad case of cabin fever anyone?)!!  However, the snow plows decided our front yard was a good place to pile the snow up from our caul-de-sac so I am not exactly ready to deal with all the debris that brought with it when it all melts… Lots of yard work to be done. 

Yup… Lots of leaves and branches to clean up when that happens…