diy

there is an ugly secret hiding in our otherwise lovely and newly-renovated house.

the basement "bathroom" <-- I use that term loosely.

we haven't tackled it before now for a few reasons, but we've come to the realization that if we ever want to sell/rent our house, it needs to be done. 

so this project has been stealing all my time:

matt has been installing new lights,

ughhhh... wallpaper should be illegal. 

I put Trent to work too.

we went to Ikea to look at flooring, but our only purchase was Matt's breakfast.

oh, and when I needed a break I went to see Beauty And The Beast 3D with Moo.

stealing all the pretty

last weekend, I had the distinct honor of serving as Ashley's bridesmaid at her awesome Denver wedding.

Ashley is an incredible person and friend, and I have been perfectly delighted with her choice for husband since the day I met him.  Ashley and Aaron are really fun people, but also just good humans who deserve each other and will do great things in their adventure together.  I love them so much.

Ashley is one of those people who walks into any room and steals everyone's attention without saying a word.  So I knew that she would be a beautiful bride.  I even expected that she would be the most beautiful bride ever.  But I didn't realize that she would literally take my breath away. 

People gasped when they saw her because it was that awesome. 

I had such a great weekend in my favorite city with their families, my best friends, and this guy:

nummers

we spent our time together this week eating out a lot. 

Vinto

gave it a 2nd chance after my 1st visit 2 years ago wasn't impressive. 

so glad we did...

so yummy and we especially loved the scoop of gelato we shared with olive oil and sea salt.

Red Iguana (2)

classic SLC deliciousness... never gets old.

Sawadee

good... but too dark for pictures

and now that I'm full, I'm going to get on an airplane and wear this dress for Ashley's wedding.

oops :)

how to do saturday morning

for the people I love the most

who seem to be making their way through some crap all at the same time

(you know who you are)

turn it up:

(p.s. i love this song, this album, the last album, this band.)

 

magic beans

on January 1, Trent taught me that you are supposed to eat black eyed peas on new year's day for prosperity in the new year.  I didn't believe him, and then did some research and found that once again, I was one of a few people who didn't know about this superstition.  (he also told me that you aren't supposed to do laundry that day or a relative will die - snopes verified that one too)

so I googled some recipes and learned that making them with stewed tomatoes means health and wealth.

I called my parents and asked if they were interested in being prosperous, healthy, and wealthy in the new year.... they were... so I worked on a combination of these two recipes (matt ate my ham) and we all had a very weird, but hopefully magical dinner. 

also... I thought that blackberry fusion jello tied in nicely with black-eyed peas (and by nicely, I mean they both have the word "black" in them) ... so I made that for dessert. 

dinner was actually pretty good.

I think we have a new tradition. 

matthew is

 talented, kind, and generous

and spends his day off replacing his friend's clutch.