Spray Paint is My New Best Friend

So I just recently discovered my love of spray paint--especially oil rubbed bronze spray paint. I have used it before to paint shelves, frames, etc., but you can use it on so much more. I am using it all over my house. Here are 2 of my projects. I will post more projects later. When we put in our chandelier, the ceiling was damaged around the hole and the top did not cover it. We went to Lowes and picked up a small, white ceiling medallion. I spray painted it with my oil rubbed bronze and then we put it up. I think it looks great--it blends in well and you don't even know it is not part of the chandelier.

Another project is my outdoor lights. The ones I really wanted were about $50. I need 6 lights, so that was not gonna happen! I found these lights that were $12.50 each--a much better option. I don't like them near as much, but they still look nice. When I bought them they were this cheap looking aluminum things. I spray painted them, again with my oil rubbed bronze, and they turned out great. Here is the before and after:

Much Needed Before and After Photos

It has been way to long since I have put any pictures of the house on here. This is one of the most exciting transformations. We got new siding on the house! We had to do it--not only because it was this hideous blue color, but the old wood was rotting.

Here is the before:

And the after: (note: this was taken right after the siding was finished, so the garage doors are still blue here...they will not stay like that! Also notice the beautiful new front porch my dad built....love it!)

California

At the end of March, Troy and I were able to go out to California. Becky and Darren bought a house and they are trying to fix it up, so Troy went out to help them with hardwood floors. They turned out awesome. Their house is very spacious and is really nice. They also have great outdoor space. They had a few different decks and patios, as well as some nice garden space. Becky has a few fruit trees, including an orange tree. It had delicious fruit. California has such a nice climate, that you can grow a wide variety of fruits and veggies. Also this time of year was so green and lush. They whole place was beautiful. Troy and I went to San Francisco one day and it was soooo busy! I was sad to see most of the sea lions were gone. Normally there are hundreds hanging around and they are very entertaining. For a few months this year most of them disappeared, but I hear they are all back now. While we were out there, most of my family was able to come to Becky's house. Only Paul and his family were missing and we missed them. We had such a great time just being together and of course taking the boys to the parks--they had a blast!

October 2009--Just a little late!

So, I know these are a little bit late--only about 5 months or so! I was looking through my pictures today and have never put these up, but they are so fun. We went with the Lerch's to pick apples in Ellijay in October. We had such a good time. It was a little rainy that weekend, but that didn't stop us. We stopped in Dahlonega and walked around the town. It was adorable! They had a cute little town square and the best shops ever.

After we left, we stopped at this great pumpkin farm. It was huge and had tons of pumpkins of all sizes. They had itty bitty ones all the way up to huge monsters. They also had a lot of activities and food. It was fun to spend a little time here looking at everything they had.

We finally got to Ellijay and went to Hillcrest farms. They had a big festival going on, which included pig races. Of course we had to stop and watch the pig races! That was interesting, but kind of funny. We finally went out to the fields to get some apples. They were so juciy and delicious. We didn't get a ton of them, but we got enough to make delicious apple pie and apple cider. I had such a good time. I am definitely going back this fall.

Swagbucks

Have you heard of swagbucks? It is a search engine that you can earn points on and then redeem your points for rewards. Right now I have enough points for a $5 Amazon gift card. I have been slow earning points because I tend to forget about it, but now I have put a search toolbar on my computer so I use that instead of google. There are also other ways to win--they send out codes on their blog and facebook page and all. Check it out here: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/kborup. Hopefully I can earn enough points to get something cool. Copy and paste the link to sign up and you can start earning points too! Also, I put a widget on the side so you can click that too!

Snow Day!

It is very rare that is snows around here. The last time it snowed was 2002....thats a LONG time ago! But this year, it snowed and snowed and snowed (well, just for one day!) I didn't believe the weatherman--he predicted that we would get snow in January, and we didn't get one lick of anything...snow, sleet, rain....nothing. In fact, it was about 50 degrees that day. So last friday I didn't think we would get anything either, until about 3 pm. I was at work and very little snow flurries started to fall. They were so small you almost couldn't see them. Then around 4 pm it started to pick up. We actually got big huge snowflakes. At five I rushed home to get out the camera. It was so beautiful! Everything was covered in white and the snow was falling so gently and peacefully. It kept snowing for the rest of the night, and even knocked out the power for almost an hour! When we woke up on Saturday, we found that almost 6 inches had fallen! We went out and played for a while, but the sun was out and it was warm and the snow was melting very quickly. It seemed like it was snowing again just because so much snow was falling off the trees. This is how snow needs to be---have a snowfall and make everything so beautiful, and then the next day melt! (I like snow, but only for a day or 2.)


This is when I got home from work and was walking around the neighborhood--I thought we had a lot then, but it was just getting started!




That night--still snowing!






The next morning---check out the railings and steps. We measured it and it was almost 6 inches high!




It was so beautiful! (Sorry--picture overload here!)











We almost lost Hershey in the snow!



Troy wanted to go sledding....it didn't work...and he broke his "sled"!

Wedding Pictures

Our wedding was beautiful. The Mount Timpanogos Temple is gorgeous, and I am glad we chose that one to get married in. The Bride's room is beautiful. I was the only bride that afternoon, so I got a lot of attention! The ceremony was very nice, but to be honest I don't remember a lot of it. I was just so happy to finally be there getting married!! Ok, so I FINALLY got my pictures from the photographer, and I hate to say I am VERY disappointed in her work. Ever since I have decided to go with her, I have been following her blog to see all of her work, and I love her pictures. They are so beautiful and creative, so I was super excited to have to take our pictures. Well, as she was taking us around the Temple, I was a little confused about the places she would take us and the poses she put us in. I also have to mention I was miserable because it was 1 degree outside!! It was unbelievably cold that day, but it was a beautiful day and the sky was clear and such a beautiful blue. So after waiting 5 weeks, I got the CD in the mail, and I am hard pressed to find even 5 that I like. I just have to say, thank goodness for Tanner! She saved the day. She was originally not going to be able to come to Utah for the wedding, which is why we hired a photographer. She was able to come, and boy am I glad. She went around with us and the photographer, and then took us around some more after the photographer left. She took much better pictures and took us to better locations around the temple. After we left, we all headed down to Mimi's Cafe for dinner. That place was so good and we had tons of people there, which was great. Tanner was also busy taking pictures at the dinner, which I am so grateful for because I want to remember that also. I thought all the stress would be over, but when I got home and started to prepare for the reception, it was just beginning! We were planning on having the reception in the gym at the church (I really didn't want it at the church, but with such short notice and it being the Christmas season, everything else was booked). I really wanted to have floor length table cloths and floor length chair covers. We found a girl that ran her own business and was reasonably priced, so we ordered all the linens from her. Well, about 10 days before the reception, she emailed my mom and told her that she would send out the linens the Monday before the reception. She didn't ask for a response, so my mom just assumed she would send it. Well, Tuesday came and then Wednesday...and the girl emailed my mom and told her since my mom never confirmed with her, she did not send them out. (By the way, I forgot to mention....we had already paid in full and reserved the date....do you think we need to send a confirmation telling her yes, we want them, after we had already paid for them????) She offered to send them out next day air, so my mom told her to go ahead. Well, she never did. So here it is, the day before my reception, and I don't have any linens. I called around to all the local places, but they charge about $8 a chair cover....no way! Tanner was able to get a hold of one of her friends to borrow table cloths, but we still could not get any chair covers. The table cloths were not floor length, but at this point I didn't care, I was just happy to have table cloths. We decided to move to the reception to the Relief Society Room, since the linens were our major decorations. So the other major decoration we ordered was flowers. I have always loved ranunculus, so we ordered a couple hundred of those. We had them come a few days early so they could open up and be ready for the reception. When they arrived, I opened the box to find FLOWER BUDS!!!! These were not full grown flowers. I panicked! I waited until the next day to see if they would open up and become real flowers, but they never did. So off to Sam's we went to buy roses. How boring! Luckily, Tanner was able to arrange them and they looked beautiful! Troy's mom made the cake. I guess I wanted a difficult cake and she was not comfortable with the design I wanted. She tried as hard as she could, and although it wasn't exactally what I wanted, it turned out great. Only one layer had problems! Haha. We thought it might collapse, but it made it through. It was an almond sour cream white cake with raspberry filling. It was seriously one of the best cakes I ever had. So other than that, the reception was great! Becky was there to help decorate, which was nice because after all the stress and trying to run around and fix everything, my mom and I were brain dead. The pictures make it look like it was very bright in the room, but it was nice and dark and turned out beautifully. Carolyn played the harp which was great. Also, one of my favorite things from the reception was the favors--I had custom fortune cookies made and put them in chinese takeout boxes wrapped in red ribbon. They turned out great! I have included a few pictures from the photographer we hired out in Utah. You can go to Tanner's website to see hers from the Temple, Mimi's, the reception, and Temple Square. Her website is capturedbyviva.com. I have emailed most of you with the password to get into my galleries. If you didn't get the password, email me and I will send it to you. Even with all the stress of the wedding and reception, it still turned out beautifully and I loved every minute! (Sorry for the novel!)