Ikea!

Moving is messy. Moving creates chaos. Moving = My worst nightmare!

We just moved in June, and ever since it has been a constant endeavor to get enough storage for all the stuff that actually made the extensive cut from before the move. Enter Ikea.

I had been to Ikea before, and thought it was awesome, but it was never in the budget to redecorate just because I had all of these amazing ideas. With the new house, and the ensuing chaos, we decided to head over there to get ideas of how we could get things back to par.

First and foremost, I lost my dresser. Well, not really. It's still in the house. It was just a sideboard being used as a dresser. In this new house, we actually needed a sideboard, so it got promoted to the dining room, and the search for a new dresser began. We found this great, simple, four drawer dresser in ebony to match my black, grey, and red bedroom. I put it together all by myself, and it took a little time to figure out the pieces, but it came together, and I was quite proud of it.

Next chaos to tackle was the mess of toys. You'd never guess we sent a so many of the toys to DI by the stack of boxes and bags we had, but I promise we eliminated a ton. We had a huge walk in closet in the family room downstairs, so there was a lot to get rid of. I had a lot of fun designing this cool plan of cabinets, and bench.

We put a 40" wide cabinet and a video cabinet to the left of the window. We put a couple of drawers to make the toys easily accessible for little kids with short arms, and toys with lots of little pieces up high, where it requires an adult to get them down.

We put a bookshelf on it's side, and turned it into a really cool bench, and great location for all of the kids books.

On the right of the window, we put a half size image of the cabinet on the left. It gave the last bit of storage needed for all of the toys, and finished the look off well. It gives a perfect built in look to that side of the room. We love it.

One thing you may know, but may need to put into perspective is that all items from ikea come in flat boxes. That means that we had to construct the cabinets, install the doors, construct the drawers, install the tracks, and set the drawers. Also, these cabinets are empty holes. You have to design out each part of it, including how many shelves, drawers, types of drawers, but that means you end up with a unique piece specifically designed to fit your own needs, and I got to do a good portion of the designing. Basically it was a lot of work, and craziness, but I have ikea construction down. You want to know a little secret? I LOVED IT!

After the family room was put together we moved on to my mother's sewing room. She left a beautiful, recently redone sewing room in the old house, so she really wanted something that would function and look nice to compensate for all that she was leaving behind. As we put together the cabinets in the family room, she decided she wanted something similar in her sewing room, but with more drawers, and a great expanse of desk for her sewing machine, embroidery machine, and surger.

We had it all put together, but there was a space between the end of the desk, and the wall. We measured, and thought about another 20" cabinet, but there wasn't quite enough space. I glanced out into the family room, and saw the kids book bench. I took the tape measure out and it was the perfect width. My mother loved the idea, but thought she was done with the room. After a couple of days of walking around saying "it really would be nice." "it really would work so well.", we finally went back to ikea and bought another one. Once we got it together the room felt complete... well, almost.

She found that she loved this drawer unit we used as one of the legs, and now she wants another one to replace a temporary plastic one she has rolled under there, but, for now at least, I think it all looks great.

We're still working on getting pictures hung, and everything in order, but it's really starting to look livable, and not a 2700 sq. ft. storage shed. I have put a lot of work into it, and that always makes me feel accomplished.

Next up... My bathroom. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to not put any drawers in a bathroom? I don't think there will be any ikea in there though, but it is definitely my new favorite furniture store. It's great looking, nice furniture, and you feel a sense of pride when you see all the pieces and know that you put them together yourself.

Mes Belle Livres Français!

As you might have guessed from the name of this blog I'm kind of a Frenchie. I've been taking French almost nonstop since I was in middle school, nearly a decade now, and am studying to become a French Teacher. Needless to say, I love the language, and any chance I get to use it. I particularly love to read in French. I find it easier to grasp concepts and expand my vocabulary without getting lost on accents or sounds.

I started reading in French with The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. For family scripture study at night we each had copies of The Book of Mormon in our own language of choice. I had my French Le Livre De Mormon, my mother had her Spanish El Libro De Mormón, and my daddy had his Tongan Ko e Tohi 'a Molomoná. We would each read 2 verses in our language, then try to translate them into English. We also had an English version that got passed around, and someone else would read the two verses we had just translated out loud, to see how we had done, and what we learned from it.

Now I read my French Book of Mormon out loud each night for personal scripture study. It's a lot of fun, and has been a huge help in getting the flow of the language down.

I started the rest of my tiny (for now) French book collection while on my study abroad in France. We went in this awesome book store in the mall in Annecy, where I lived, and I had about 5 books in my hand, before I finally settled on just one. (I had way too much luggage that was heavy, and couldn't afford to have any more than the one book.) I decided on a collection, so that I didn't feel too cheated, and bought one of my favorite series. I bought The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis ou Le Monde de Narnia en Français. So really I bought 7 books, I just justified it, because its bound into a single volume.

Those were the only two books I had in French for a while, besides textbooks, but then this summer I have been doing an independent readings class, taking a few simple books, and creating lesson plans on how to use them to teach a high school French class. It's a fascinating class, and going to be a huge help when I am a high school French teacher, but in the meantime I'm mostly excited that it's helping to add a few more books to my French Library.

The first one is just a tiny little one, about the size of my hand called Champlain au Canada: Les Aventures d'un Gentilhomme Explorateur. It's a little story book about some of the first French explorers and habitants of Canada. It's a cute little book to have, and a fairly easy level of reading. I like it.

The second one, and the one I am most excited to have though, is Harry Potter à l'Ecole des Sorciers aka Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. It's not really easy, but it's not too difficult, and it has been the most fun to read. It's fun to see things I loved in the English version, like the sorting hat song, and the poem outside Gringots translated into French. They obviously can't do direct translation, so to me it's interesting to see what meanings they take, and how they find a French rhyming sequence to somewhat mirror that of the original. I'm currently working on a lesson plan using the Hogwarts Express to teach Train vocabulary. It's totally cool, and new, and a lot of work, but fun.

I'm sure my French Library will grow as I continue on, but I'm proud of my collection, small as it may be. It makes me smile, and gives me an excuse to curl up with a good book. Hey, I'm practicing my French! It counts right?

Girly Vacation!

After several busy and stressful months full of school, work, school work, moving, setting up a new house, and life in general a major vacation was in order. After a bit of confusion and a subsequent upgraded rental we were on our way to a fabulous girls vacay! I love girl getaways! My mother and I are down in St. George for the week, and yesterday and today my sister and her two little girls and their cousin came to join us. We have had so much fun. Last night all 6 of us girlies went to see The Little Mermaid at Tuachan down here. It was an amazing production and the girls talked about it non stop for about 15 minutes after the show. I'm sure their monologues would have continued had they not fallen asleep. One of them may have drifted off mid sentence, but after they started repeating themselves I half tuned them out so I can't be certain. It was midnight, and they're only 7 and 8, so you can't really blame them.

Today we took them hiking up in Snow Canyon. We took them on a couple of fun, short hikes and just laughed and had a good time.

We especially loved coming upon a natural cutout in the rock, perfect for poking heads through for pictures.

Kelsea and Chloe

Me

Chloe being Chloe

Hallie

Grandma and Chloe

Silly Grandma!

Kelsea trying to give a Mona Lisa smile. Maybe.

Hallie and Me

After we all got really hot and tired we came back to the condo for a sandwich and a swim. The girls had a fabulous time splashing around and cooling off. I cooled off for a while. Now I'm burning up. Curse my red hair and fair skin complexion.

Before they left we had a quiet break curled up on the couch. We all snuggled together and while Chloe brushed my hair, I read them an old favorite of mine. It was the first in the series and each of the girls took one of my books with them to read on their way home. I am glad that they enjoyed it as much as I did, and hope to be able to share more of that with them in the coming months and years.

Get me out of here!

It happens all the time, usually when I have too many responsibilities to actually make it a feasible option. I'm sick of home. I have been very blessed in my life to have traveled all over the world, but traveling is an insatiable bug, the more you see the more you realize just how little you've actually seen, and how much more there is.

When I get in one of these moods, I start daydreaming of all the places I've been and things I've seen. I pull up photos and think back on all of the wonderful experiences I had.

Today I've been thinking a lot about Lisbon, Portugal, so I thought I'd share a few pictures and experiences I had while there.

This is the heart of Lisbon, right off the bay. It is such a beautiful area.

These are beautiful views of the city from Le Castelo de Sao George up on one of the highest hills of the city. Lisbon is absolutely beautiful, and similar to San Francisco with its several hills that the city is set on.

A unique feature of the city that I absolutely loved was their use of hand-painted tiles as the exterior of buildings, and in beautiful little courtyards around the city.

I absolutely loved the little trolly public transit, which I took to get to the Jeronimos Monastery, which has a unique mariner take on the gothic style. I loved it!

But above any other place I went my favorite place in Portugal, came as a surprise, because I didn't even know it existed. I was riding the trolly to the monastery, and saw it out the corner of my eye, and I had to make my way back to it afterwards. The Museo National dos Coaches! Every princesses dream. An entire museum of Cinderella carriages, that real princesses have ridden in over the year.

Thanks for indulging me in my reminiscing. I promise not to share every vacation I've ever been on, but it's fun to post my pictures, and remember some of my favorite memories.

more pictures here :)

Called to Serve

Most of the girls my age seem to have had a lot more guy friends than I did in High School, and all of them have gone and come back from their missions. I on the other hand had to wait till I was 21 to start having my friends leave on their missions. Its been a neat experience to have them go all over the world, and hear how their experiences are so different and yet so similar. In the past few months I have attended the homecomings for two of my longest friends: Rachel and Holli.

(Rachel and Me at her Homecoming)

Rachel and I have known each other since we were two, and even though I moved away when we were 5, we've remained friends over the years. Rach went to Independence, Missouri. I loved hearing about her faith and love develop over the course of her mission.

Holli and I have known each other since the first grade. She's one of the silliest people I know, and I totally knew she was going to Brazil. There was no doubt in my mind. When she got her call to Fiji I was totally floored, but it was the perfect fit for her, and it was fun to have her talk to my daddy about his experiences in the South Pacific years before. Randomly enough, she even encountered someone who had been a missionary there when Fiji was part of the Tonga mission, and my daddy was in that mission presidency. My daddy seriously knows EVERYONE!

They are the only two that are back from their missions so far. My friend Ysabel is having such amazing experiences in Kyiv, Ukraine. My friend Marisa is totally gung ho and incredible with her service in the Rapid City, South Dakota mission (so exotic I know). She has spent almost her whole mission so far in northern Wyoming. My friend Kelsie just left a little over a month ago, and is barely into the field in Atlanta, Georgia.

The newest and most exciting of all is my niece Mary! She actually enters the MTC tomorrow morning. She is headed to Des Moines, Iowa, and couldn't be more excited. The mission is full of church history sites, and as part of her mission she'll get to go to the Nauvoo Temple. She just had her farewell on Sunday, and she is going to be such a wonderful missionary.

I'm not one of the ones headed out on a mission at this point in my life, but I absolutely am loving the experience of having so many of my friends serve, and relay their experiences. They have had their own personal difficulties, and yet there have been many similar threads through it all. Their love of the gospel is wonderful, and I'm loving everything they are sharing. (Now I just need to be better at writing them)

Wedding Cakes and Fun!

Wow, so I never expected to be this bad at keeping my blog updated. It's been nearly a year since the last time I posted, seeing as cute little Olivia is now almost a year old! Love that little girl so much! And I had nothing to worry about, I just took advantage of being a college student with a flexible schedule and drove down after work to see her. She loves to dance, so I've found that I act like a complete dork, dancing around anywhere and everywhere we might be, just to make her laugh.

One talent I've been slowly developing over the years is cake decorating. I was doing it before Ace of Cakes started to air (LOVE that show!) or *shudder* Cake Boss. I'm not amazing, but it's something I enjoy doing, and lately its turned into my gift for close friends and family when they get married, and boy have I had lots of opportunities as of late! My good friend Lindsey got married on April 30th, and I was way excited. A few weeks after I found out that date, my niece Emily got engaged and set her date for 3 weeks later on May 20th. I was starting to get excited and freak out. 2 cakes in 3 weeks?!? Then, as if to make things as insane as humanly possible, my nephew Jake got engaged and set his date for June 10th, just 3 more weeks after Emily's.

3 cakes in 6 weeks! Was I nuts? Well, yes, but that's beside the point. I had an absolute blast baking and decorating 3 very different cakes, but they turned out pretty well, I think.

Lindsey and Steven: April 30th, 2011

She had a vintage theme with Purple, Gold, and Cream as her colors. I wanted it to be simple, and elegant, but still with something unique and fun for them. The bottom two layers were chocolate with raspberry filling. The top two were styrofoam, which allowed me to cut the top layer into an octagon. I put their monogram on the front center panel of the top, and left it tall and elegant. She seemed to love it, and that's my biggest priority, especially when the bride is a close friend or family.

Emily and Richard: May 20th, 2011

Although they had similar themes, and color schemes, Emily was a bride of a totally different feather. Where Lindsey had a few ideas, and then worked with me once I'd drawn out a design, Emily came in with what she wanted fairly strongly in place. She wanted vintage. She did not want stacked. She did not want white. And she certainly did not want it to look like any other cake you've ever seen. She had a theme of feathers, lace, and pearls, and wanted each cake to reflect that. We laughed and had a great time drawing it out and figuring out exactly what she wanted. We got the idea that the cakes would be somewhat of an artistic take on hat boxes, and we had fun. The large cake was the only real layer (the other 2 being styrofoam again), and this is where she and Rich had so much fun. They didn't care so much about my fun recipe's, "we're just box mix kind of people" they said. We talked flavors, but nothing seemed too exciting, until someone asked if I could do a Neapolitan cake. Well of course! So it was decided, and when they cut the cake they were excited to see the perfect stripes of Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry, and another chocolate. I hand painted the fondunt gold to give it a vintage patina, and used what Emily gave me, and few things I had on hand to put together this fun, unique, cake.

Jake and Andrea: June 10th, 2011

Last, but certainly not least, were Jake and Andrea. They were so much fun, because they really had no idea what they wanted. We spent a while talking about shapes and layouts, and they determined they liked the simplicity of a three tiered, round, white, stacked cake. Ribbon and flowers seemed simple and perfect for them, and their fun yellows and reds wedding. We tried to decide on a design for the side, but they just weren't sure. All they knew was that they wanted it to be simple, but not plain, so they said to keep it monochromatic, and have fun designing it as I wished. Thats a big responsibility, when someone trusts you enough to let you do your own thing. I wanted it to be perfect, and I must have scraped off and repiped some of the details a dozen or more times. In the end they were really happy with it. Oh, the flavor! I almost forgot. They kept going back and forth between carmel or mint as the filling of a chocolate cake, and eventually settled on mint. I didn't have a recipe for a mint filling, so I kind of adjusted some chocolate chip frosting recipes I found online and used the green melting mints you can get at Gygi, or other restaurant supply stores. It worked really well, and I licked more of the bowl than I usually do before washing it, after it was frosted of course.

The whole thing was nuts, and I had a bittersweet feeling when it was all done. I had an absolute blast making 3 very different, and individualized cakes, but it was a lot of work, and I was glad to be done for a little bit. No cakes are in my immediate future, and I'm enjoying the break, but having fun speculating who will be next. We shall see.

Auntie Bella

I can't believe it! Lori will be having her baby tomorrow! This is why my blog is Auntie Bella. Being an aunt is my favorite thing in the world. The Bella comes from my niece Maddie who randomly started calling me that when she was just a little tyke. I am kind of sad that I'm not going to get to see this cute little girl until she is a few days old. Barring my one niece who had to spend her first 2 weeks of life in the NICU, I have gone to see, and can remember seeing all of my nieces and nephews from the time I was four years old on, in the hospital after they were born. Its a joy to start building that relationship from the time they are just tiny. I'll live. Kelsea and I have a great relationship and I didn't get to see her for the first time until she was over a month old, so I'm sure this little girl and I will be just fine, I'm just sad not to get to be there.