THANKSGIVING BREAK

It's funny how accustomed I've become to my new life. I used to see a member of my family about once a week when we were living in Cedar City, and see Jared's parents even more often than that. Now that we are all the way up here in Elko, it's harder to take trips to see family so they are few and far between. But we have friends here and so we kind of just get used to our little bubble of work and weekends and every day routine. Then we go home. And it all changes. I realize again how much I miss everyone. How fun it is to just hang out, play games, and chat with family and not have to think, "we need to cram as much as we possibly can into the next few days because who knows when we'll be down next?" And seeing our nieces growing up too fast and trying to catch up on lost time is so hard!

Six months ago, if you had given Jared an amazing job that was closer to our family (or anywhere else for that matter) I would have been excited to go. But I realized on this trip, that if we move any time soon, I am going to be incredibly sad. We have made some amazing friends here in Elko. Some of whom I consider part of my family. I am so happy that I've been able to meet such amazing people and be able to share our lives with each other. To clarify, we have no reason to be moving any time soon, it was just something I was thinking about when I went to my parents. And that's another thing- obviously, my childhood home will always be "home" but I realized I referred to Elko as home and truly meant it. I've never done that with anywhere I've lived.

It was so great to see our families this week. Talking about everything under the sun (mostly ancient America and the relation to the Book of Mormon- AMAZING!), playing frisbee golf, playing with our 6 nieces, catching up with siblings, eating scrumptious food, shopping and taking silly photos. It was refreshing to be face to face with our families. I miss them a lot! We're so glad that we are able to travel home and that we have technology now to keep up to date with our families.

I hope your Thanksgiving breaks were all filled with family and yummy food!

Bloglovin'

Do you like to follow different blogs? By family members, friends, or on any other topic known to man? Do you have them all bookmarked and have to go through clicking on each one, going to their page every day, not knowing whether or not they posted but just wanting to check? I know I used to do this.

<<< here comes the shameless plug for Bloglovin'>>>

Then I found Bloglovin! I love this site! I follow a lot of family and friend's blogs but also design, fashion and photography blogs and I was missing out on a lot of content. With Bloglovin, you add all the blogs you want to follow and whenever one of them makes a new post, it comes up on your feed. It's awesome. Plus, they have a great app for Apple products (and I'm sure Android as well) that's streamlined and easy to read on the go. It's such an easy way to have access to all the blogs you want to keep track of. Plus, it's all FREE! Gotta love that!

So go register on Bloglovin, add all the blogs you want to follow (like mine for instance?!) and enjoy seeing all the new content in one place! Thanks friends, I hope you enjoy Bloglovin as much as I do!

LOVING LATELY

I don't know what I would do without the internet! I love searching for images, projects, products, sites and people who inspire me to create more beautifully and more often. Here are a few links of things I have been loving lately:

 

Lauren Conrad's office makeover *swoon* 

An adorable little online shop called Have. I seriously want this print!

Have you heard of The Period Store? Every month you can order your feminine products, and then they include a piece of artwork, a gourmet candy, tea and medicine. Haha it's an Aunt Flow visit care kit! I haven't ordered one yet but it would be fun to get surprise things in the mail at that time of the month! Goodness knows us women need some cheering up about then!



A motivational thought on storytelling by Ira Glass.

Those are some interesting things I've found lately, anything you've found worthy of sharing? I'd love to hear about them!

MY EVERYDAY: OCTOBER

October is by far my favorite month in Elko! The leaves starting turning gorgeous golden and burning colors, the air has a crisp bite to it, and pumpkin is in everything! One of my favorite things to do this month was to load up a thermos with hot cocoa, pack a fruit filled pastry and walk around town looking at old houses. It has become my new favorite hobby! 

 This house is my favorite so far! Isn't it beautiful??

I started ordering Bountiful Baskets! Check out their website and look for a location near you! It's a great way to get fresh produce and support a community! Plus I get all sorts of different produce that I don't usually buy so it's fun trying out new recipes.

I went exploring up Lamoille Canyon taking some much needed time for myself to write and take photos. It was fun getting away into nature and just sitting and contemplating life.

We painted our front door orange! I've been wanting to do this for months so we finally took a weekend and did it. I am pretty obsessed with it and love the way the front of our house looks now!

Selfie!! I felt pretty that day, add in the autumn leaves and I was one happy camper! 

October was good to me, I had lots of time to gain inspiration, fatten up a little on cocoa and pastries (totally worth it!!) and get ready to hibernate this winter. I'm beginning to really enjoy all the changing of seasons we have here in Elko!

A PATIO SET

BEFORE

AFTER

I picked up this wrought iron patio set from an online garage sale a couple weeks ago. It's hard to tell from the before photo but the paint was all peeling and the cushions were extremely sun faded and dirty. 

So I repainted the frame with Rust-oleum Satin White, and picked up this outdoor fabric and new foam from Joann's for the cushions. Jared helped me staple the fabric and foam onto the seats, I Windexed the table top and put it all together on the deck. 

It is so nice having a place to sit and eat, read, or just hang out outside! And for a fraction of the cost of a brand new patio set! I can live with that. 

Have you done any refurbishing or renovating lately? I'd love to hear about them!