Now That's Something I Recognize

For the first time in my life I've been in Provo for the entire winter. This doesn't seem like a huge accomplishment, but for me - someone who love sunshine and warm AZ winters - it's quite a feat. We stayed put for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year and it was fun to have the snow and a cozy little holiday, but now that January is almost over I'll admit it... my need for snow is over and longing for sunshine is making a huge comeback. In fact, I couldn't care less if the snow went away and never came back, but I'm dealing with the fact that that won't ever happen here.

The other night Benj told me to come quick and look. This is what I saw from our living room window.

I was stoked! Sunshine... or more accurately,  a sunset! I stood and watched for a bit, excited that the sun is again making a more solid appearance in Utah these days. Maybe spring is coming quicker than expected and I can forgo more months of snow and such, right? Wrong. It's been a week since this happened and we've already had two really minor snow dustings since then. More storms have been predicted but have yet to appear, but I'm not holding out much hope that we'll see any great expanse of sunshine for awhile still.

So what's an AZ girl to do? Wait I guess... well, that and keep scraping off my car with the hope that someday I'll be warm again!

Kitchen Makeover, Part III

I promise this is the last big post about our home improvement adventures. We've been loving the updates and the chance to try out our skills on all of our projects. However, this next one needed some extra help.

Benj's parents came to visit and during that time, Benj & his dad put in laminate flooring in the hall, kitchen and bathroom! Lets just say that I'm in love.

Here's the before/after, so you can see how good it looks!

 Benj also put in great new baseboards... we're loving it!

Kitchen Makeover, Part II

Now on to Kitchen Makeover, Part II. To understand this completely you'll have to understand a couple of things. First, I have one of those "can do/sure I've seen that done before" attitudes. Second, I love to read blogs, especially ones that include tutorials in which you create something awesome for half the price and learn some great skill in the process. And third, well... I love to find people that want to do these types of things with me, and Benj seems to always be game for an adventure.

That said, I found a great idea for a table. The inspiration...that table on the right:

via designmom

Now we don't have a dining room, but we do need more counter space. Benj and I are both towards the taller end, so we decided to make our table bar height. Also, we don't really have space for a "giant table" so we decided to make ours into a custom-sized island. Benj got to work and started sketching up plans. We hit up the lumber store, bought some sheet metal, and here's what we got.

The table top - ready for the bottom edge to be wrapped and then taken inside.

Drilling holes for the legs & bolting them on.

And voila! Turn it over and you've got a great bar height island with a super cool urban/industrial feel. (Sorry for the glimpses of Christmas below. I forgot that I hadn't taken a picture of Benj's handy work yet, so had to snap one just the other day.)

Digging Through iPhoto

So I was digging through iPhoto today on my laptop, found this picture, and had to share.

This is what happens post-Halloween to a good ghoulish pumpkin... you age, and you start smacking your gums. Then you remember the good ol' days when you use to be scary.

Oh, the good ol' days!