A Day of Firsts, Fun, Family and Friends!

Yesterday my sister came...It was GLORIOUS to have girl time/day with her.

Here's the down and dirty of our day:

1) We met up with Mike during his lunch break from his test (4 hr morning and 4 hr afternoon sessions)

2)Went to DSW (which is basically 3 lil letters that equate to shoe heaven!)

3) Proceeded to Chipotle for a massive burrito and a corona for our late lunch

4) Shopped til we dropped (about 2-3 hours later)

5) Got pampered with a mani/pedi

6) Arrived back home, ate some dinner and got ready and then headed out on the town for some drinks with friends

This was also a day of 1sts for me, which included:

1)Buying my first pair of pumps! Thanks to the help of my sister.

(I skipped the whole "regular" style and went straight for a peep toe and platform look...kind of a go big or go home type deal!)

2) Wore red lipstick (via my friend M)

(not sure why I am laughing sooooo hard! But this is the only pic on my camera where I am sporting the red lips!)

(so now I might be less UNgirly than before!)

3) I made another candle (not a first, I know), but tried my creative side and made a stackable with two colors and also added dye to a white one and swirled it before it dried/hardened...

4) While at the nail salon, got my manicure with Shellac (the new craze now a days)

I would recommend this, your nails feel super hard and the dry time is instant, you also put your hands into mini tanning bed devices (since the nail polish has UV in it)

Of course, after all that and being out til late last night/this morning...in conjunction with drinking way too many beers/shots/car bombs, I totally did nothing other than rent 3 movies and watched them all with Mike and stayed on the couch drinking full calorie soda and eating greasy breakfast food...

Maybe I will be more productive tomorrow!

Creative Sunday

I was feeling a bit lazy today but decided to give my hand another shot at trying some different candles out since the last couple times had been successful...

I bought a new mold (heart shaped) and some stackable candle templates (circle shaped)...

Here's how it went...

I bought new color and scents, so I tried out blue and lavender

I set out the empty tray templates

Filled them with the wax

Waited to pop them out, and then heated the needle, pushed that through the center to make a hole and threaded the wick through

And eventually ended up with a stack!

I then had leftover wax and made a small heart shaped candle with what was left...

Channing was also feeling lazy, but did not seem phased by my new artistic endeavors...he's a hard to please doggie some days!

Success!

I

MADE

CANDLES!

Ok, so I made 1 candle, but at least I didn't burn the house down or harm myself (since Mike was gone all day)...I would say it was a great success! Especially since I had to go to Michael's craft store and find certain tools/things with which to make my candle.

Here is a look at my setup...

I set up the molds with the wicks prior to melting the wax...

And then began melting the wax...

Once the wax melted and reached the right temp. I added color and some fragrance

I chose red color and raspberry scent

I then poured this into my mold and let it stand for a loooong time

Once set and completely cooled, out popped my FIRST SOY CANDLE (it's supposed to be more eco-friendly and burn longer)

And it's not exactly RED and isn't pungent smelling, but has some scent to it...

I'm pretty happy about it though!

Projects and things

I LOVE to do house projects with my husband...

They

are

the

best!

While I will admit that we often have our frustrating moments (stomping, cursing, throwing things, etc. Basically having a tantrum like a 2-3 year old)...we truly love doing them to leave OUR mark on the house we live in...to update it and make it modern and contemporary and fit OUR style.

We moved into our house back in December of 2008 and IMMEDIATELY set to work...before we even moved in real things...

we.slept.in.sleeping.bags.

(I meant before anything-including our furniture!)

This house of ours had some interesting choices, the wallpaper trim around some rooms and BRIGHT PINK room with MAGENTA TRIM and the paint roller effects in other rooms to name a few...

(don't get me wrong-PINK is my favorite color...I just don't know if I need a whole room painted as such...accents are nice though...)

So, I can remember taking down the wallpaper trim (which is horrible...don't ever wallpaper things...whoever moves in after you will NOT like them and will also go through the same hell-ish process in removing them...it's just not fun!)

We then painted just about every room, hall, bathroom, closet and trim piece there was...

I

was

sick

of

painting!

(no more please!)

We moved on to bigger and better things though (and more fun for that matter).



We tiled our foyer and 1/2 bath (and later replaced the vanity, mirror, lights and faucet)

We installed laminate floors downstairs in the family room

(note the fireplace in back...that will change in a couple pictures...)

We gave our front yard a "face lift"

We tiled over our brick fireplace

(we still need a mantle!)

And we have tile ready for our next tiling process (to occur in the guest bath upstairs)

We have such big ideas for other parts of our house, it all basically comes down to $$ and time

But we would LOVE to totally change our kitchen around (including re-wiring, re-routing water lines...a whole lotta things!)

We would also love to really go all out on our master bath, which is already quite large, but I would love a jacuzzi tub and a different shower and some built in storage for towels and toiletries...and lots more tiling!

I must send a special thanks out to my sister-in-law (Laura) who taught us how to start tiling and laid down the very first few tiles in our house :) From that point on we have been tiling like crazies when we get the chance!

I guess that's how I have been letting my creative side flow lately...feels nice!

Oh, and we also did a really nice retaining wall for Mike's parents (I think 2-3 weeks right before our wedding!) But it turned out lovely and his parents really like it a lot!!

I am also going to try my hand in making soy candles...hopefully I don't burn the house down in trying, but I think it would be a fun and creative project for me to do and hopefully simple enough that I don't get frustrated (and run around pouting and griping to Mike)...

we shall see, projects take patience and time (both of which I have little of sometimes!)

but...I do Love me some candles