is it ok? {please say yes}

is it ok to wear brown and black together?

that rule is so 90's, right?

let's hope.

because if not, my outfit today totally totally clashes.

black dress. black tights. brown boots. tan sweater. brown headband.

i hope i'm not embarrassing myself.

ten honest things.

01. i kind of have a shopping problem. i've had to be a lot {A LOT} better now that i have a child and i work a fraction of the hours i used to. but seriously i looooove to shop. sometimes i see something and convince myself that i absolutely need it. and if i have the will power to not buy it on the spot, i'll wonder what the heck i was thinking when i get home. sean loves this about me :)

♥
02. i really really hate pecans. pecan pie is the most disgusting food ever created. and it looks just as disgusting as it tastes. and while i'm at it: german chocolate cake. looks like barf. sooooo gross. there are very few foods that i don't like and these two go at the top of the list.
♥
03. i am not a very organized person. we have a junk drawer. everyone has one, right? we also have a junk cupboard. and a junk room upstairs. and my room tends to be a pile of junk 5 days of the week. i do keep my house tidy most of the time, but the junk is hidden :)
♥
04. serena and i like to watch concerts on kbyu in the morning. yesterday was some tchaikovsky and rachmaninoff. it was lovely.
♥
05. i like to eat candy before bed.
♥
06. i have really bad teeth {i wonder why???}. i went to the dentist yesterday and it was not pretty. they scheduled me back for a two hour appointment to fix things up.
♥
07. i get teary-eyed a lot. does that ever change after you've had a baby? because i don't remember being this way before serena came along. i almost cried yesterday walking through costco because they had all of the christmas trees set up.
♥
08. i am afraid of getting a massage. lack of clothing + stranger touching me = yikes, no thanks.
♥
09. i have really enjoyed tasting all of serena's baby food. the banana strawberry apple medley is particularly delicious. the garden veggies one is not so good.
♥
10. i kind of like and can't stand this blog at the same time. i think it all began when alicia started reading it and would text me randomly about weird things she says. and i would agree. love her sister's blog, though. {even if she kept her placentas, alicia.}

post.

this is a very random post. lately i feel like i have nothing to blog about. i'll try to be better. i don't want to disappoint my lovely readers, do i? :) well first things first: i made a delicious apple bread today {recipe here}. isn't fall the best??? i've been loving the changing colors and the weather and the apples. especially the green apples. they are the prettiest.

i took a picture of this the other day because Air is the only nickname i've ever had. and i can probably count on 2 hands the number of people who call me that. i have decided that i am really really not a nickname kind of person. i hardly EVER call people by a nickname. even my closest friends. maybe it's because i'm secretly upset that i never had a good one. there's not much you can do with ariel.

i promised some pictures from chuck e cheese and i'm finally getting around to it today. here is my child on tv. she was a good sport about it :)

and here she is with grandpa. she was a little worn out from chuck e cheese. there's a lot going on there and i think she was a little over-stimulated by the end!

let's see. what other random pictures can i come up with? ah. here we go.

this is one of my latest projects. a baby blanket. can't decide if i will keep or give it. considering all of the time it has taken, i'll probably keep it :) oh and coming soon are some new headbands for the cooler seasons. plum, dusty purple, sage green, chocolate brown, etc. i'll put them in the shop as soon as my model can do a photoshoot with me!

and that's all of the photos i can find. in other news:

1. ikea makes a surprisingly good greek salad.

2. i ♥ community {minus the chevy chase. he bugs}.

3. my bedroom is a total disaster. to the point where it will be such a huge task to clean it that i keep putting it off and i'm tempted to sleep in the guest bedroom.

enjoy your thursday!

found.

photobooth pictures of a stranger's kids inside my library book. that might be the only thing i like about library books. finding things. but mostly i like my books to have that new smell. library books smell weird and have all sorts of unidentifiable stains on the pages.

i like picture number two. the boy's face is classic!

why i always have my camera with me.

have you ever seen a baby goat strolling along down a busy road? i have. and it made my day.

before i turned my car around to take a picture, he was in the middle of the lane and cars were piled up behind him.

bad car day.

10:00am: i leave home to pick up sean at work so we can go to our doctor's appointment. my car is filthy so i take it to the car wash, spend $8, and it still looks filthy. i am not pleased. then my car starts making a squeaking noise. again, i am not pleased. we proceed to doctor's appointment.

12:30pm: take my car to the shop. they think a belt is loose, so we leave it there to get worked on. i drop sean off at work and take his car to go run errands.

2:00pm: i leave a parking lot after one of my errands and get hit by a little old lady. she cries and feels so bad. sean has to come because we switched car insurances like a week ago and they haven't mailed us the cards yet {just our luck, right?!}. he had to print everything off of the internet and borrow dave's car to come to the accident site. for some reason when sean shows up, litte old lady starts crying again. she can't get out of her driver's side door, so sean had to help her out & in. i bet the cop thought it was kind of funny to pull up and see an hugely pregnant woman and a little old lady :)

4:30pm: we go to pick up my car at the shop. it ended up costing $130.00. i go out to drive my car home and it won't start {??????????}. they jump it for us, and i drive it home. let's cross our fingers that nothing else is wrong with it!!!

in short: not a good day for us and cars.

definitely embarrassing.

i recently realized that i've been spelling these two words incorrectly for as long as i can remember.

definitely. {i thought it was definately with an a}

embarrassing. {i thought it was embarassing with ONE r. and apparently i realized this once before, and yet i continued to spell it wrong!}

i blame all of my grammatical and spelling errors on spell check. it's made terrible spellers of us all.

the thing that i really hate about it is... i'll just say it... i'm kind of a snob about spelling and grammar. {you might be wondering why i don't give a flying whatever about capitalization. well... i just don't!} i'm one of those people who secretly takes great pleasure in finding spelling errors in books, on fliers, on signs, in the newspaper, etc. i found a spelling error in my copy of the memory keeper's daughter and it made my whole week. i'm also the type who wants to die of embarrassment when i look back on my posts and find a typo. it kills me, and i have to fix it immediately. it's a horrible and judgmental habit, and i'm sorry.

i'm also sorry for all future spelling/grammar errors. i'm sure there will be many. it's a blog, after all, not a professional publication.

who's watching.

this is the money we could be ARE saving by switching to geico. isn't he handsome?

happy thoughts.

♥ isn't my easter lily lovely? sean brought this home for me the other day and it's been making our house smell so pretty. this was our lone easter decoration/gift. no baskets. no candy. no presents. no colored eggs. just this pretty little easter lily.

♥ baby S is getting soooo huge. she's killing me with all the kicks and punches and movements. but i'm glad i can feel her in there. she's snug as a bug and i can't believe i still have 4+ weeks left. there's no more room in there for her to grow!!

♥ i went to see/hear the utah smyphony tonight with my mom. it was amazing. they performed a rachmaninoff concerto that was sooo beautiful. i am so so amazed by concert pianists. this guy was fabulous. i'm so glad the browning center has semi-comfortable seats so i could enjoy the music. baby loved it too. she was moving around like crazy the whole time.

101 things i've done.

i loved this post on juliann's blog and wanted to give it a shot. it took forEVER, but here is my list!

i have:

1. spent many sunday afternoons on my grandma's porch swings.
2. had my friends break up with a boy for me {it was 7th grade...}.
3. won first place for a drawing of a princess & a fire-breathing dragon.
4. hidden in my sister's closet for close to an hour just to scare her when she turned out the lights to go to sleep {she was MAD}.
5. watched a movie in the middle of a golf course at night.
6. started a book and not finished it {many many many times}.
7. littered.
8. eaten dog jerky {my "friend" told me it was human food}.
9. quit a job after only a week.
10. not flushed a toloit in a public restroom because the handle looked disease-ridden.
11. had a full blown panic attack.
12. participated in several temple dedications {bountiful, nauvoo, winter quarters, draper and one more but i can't remember which...}.
13. paid my tithing even when it was really hard to.
14. gotten on the matterhorn at disney world 5 times in a row {this was more recent than you might think...}
15. purchased a crib/rocking chair/changing table before we even started trying to get pregnant.
16. read the book of mormon.
17. toured alcatraz.
18. cried when my cat died.
19. sluffed a lot of school.
20. been spelunking in the nutty putty cave.
21. bought a wedding dress 4 months before i actually got engaged.
22. had my drivers license suspended.
23. accidentally driven to tooele when i was trying to get to jordan landing.
24. fallen off my bike many times {i have the scarred knees to prove it}.
25. auditioned and not made it.
26. auditioned and made it.
27. recorded a cd.
28. fallen down the stairs in the DC temple.
29. fallen down the stairs in the commons area in high school.
30. cried at the end of madame butterfly.
31. taken a cooking class.
32. been to several shows in branson, missouri.
33. eaten fried alligator.
34. wished i could sew.
35. flunked chemistry.
36. received a free cookie at the carl's jr drive through {haha! so much more to THAT story!}.
37. hated an ex-boyfriend really really badly.
38. faked sick.
39. given nick-names to every employee at our favorite gas station {turtle, semi-hot, no-nick-name, eater, left gray tooth, shane... ok that was his real name}.
40. spent too much money on tanning and diet coke.
41. driven to denver and back twice in one week.
42. written a love letter.
43. been married in the temple to my best friend.
44. spent many summer nights hanging out on alicia's back porch.
45. prepared a cake mix just to eat the batter.
46. fallen in love with the boy who brought me a book instead of flowers on one of our first dates. 47. been a part-time nanny to triplets.
48. ran out of gas on the freeway.
49. spent christmas and thanksgiving in hawaii.
50. spent one christmas in airports trying {and failing} to get to orlando.
51. roadtripped to las vegas with my girlfriends.
52. rejoiced when i got rear-ended {they paid me at least as much as the car was worth}.
53. performed from memory a 30+ page choral piece.
54. spilled syrup all over myself at denny's after a dashboard confessional concert.
55. exploded a bottle of ketchup all over myself at coriann's texas roadhouse in ephraim.
56. sang in a christmas concert at the cathedral of the madeline.
57. participated in a study for rheumatic fever.
58. mistaken st george for cedar city.
59. had a waitress follow me out of a restaurant because i was still holding her betty boop pen.
60. saw david archuleta sing the national anthem at a jazz game :)
61. volunteered at the steve young/jerry rice bay area classic golf tournament for charity.
62. had my picture taken with shawn bradley at said golf tournament and felt like a MIDGET {see here}.
63. had a see-how-many-pieces-of-bubble-gum-you-can-fit-in-your-mouth contest.
64. taken a drawing class.
65. left my umbrella on the metro on a very cold, very rainy night in DC {and really really regretted it}.
66. carved my name into a park bench.
67. floated down a river on an inner-tube in the middle of the night {really smart}.
68. played in HUGE piles of leaves in my grandpa's backyard.
69. chewed abc gum.
70. saw the musical Wicked in Denver.
71. gotten lost in a parking garage and had to have Sean come help me get out {he was at home and had to come to downtown salt lake}.
72. purchased a box of chocolates for myself.
73. graduated from seminary {miracle}.
74. taught the sunbeams.
75. camped out on the living room floor with sean. just for fun.
76. poisoned a plant on purpose.
77. collected stamps.
78. crocheted a few things.
79. taken voice lessons.
80. taken piano lessons.
81. listened to my sharona on repeat on many occasions.
82. washed the same load of laundry 5 times because i keep forgetting to throw it in the dryer.
83. gotten engaged on the 4th of july to the love of my life.
84. married him on a rainy day in december.
85. cried until i couldn't cry anymore.
86. laughed until it hurt.
87. started a puzzle and not finished it.
88. gotten really excited over a new vacuum :)
89. done sean's homework for him.
90. talked/screamed in my sleep.
91. stepped in human poo in a hot tub.
92. conquered my fear of the alpine slide.
93. collected pogs.
94. owned a pogo stick.
95. left my charm bracelet {a christmas gift from sean when we were dating} in the dressing room at target... never to see it again :(
96. received answers to my prayers.
97. worn white eyeliner and thought it was cool.
98. had an impromptu dance party at IP with my girlfriends :)
99. taken a lot of pictures of my feet.
100. been in awe of the fireflies in missouri.
101. written a list of 101 things i've done.

whew! that's a lot. i'm not offended if you didn't make it through the whole list.

love at first sight.

we have gone through 2 vacuums in 3 years of marriage. the first started smoking and then had to go. the second was a piece of junk that made the worst high pitched sound EVER when in use. so after buying 2 cheap, poor quality vacuums, we decided to fork out the money and buy a dyson. this is partly because we've been doing some work in the nursery {pictures later} and our house has been blanketed in a layer of dust. i knew our old vacuum couldn't handle the job. and it's time for spring cleaning. and maybe i'm nesting a little. but anyway, we LOVE it. that thing can SUCK. sean went over our carpet with the old vacuum and the next day we used the dyson... let's just say i'm horrified by how much our old vauum wasn't picking up. {and isn't she pretty??! and she's sooo light!}

my very own font.

so i found this great website where you can create a font in your own handwriting. it's pretty fun... even if my handwriting looks totally sloppy & childlike. the picture above is a sample of my font. looovely.

now i can type handwritten letters.

nevers.

i said i would never:

dye my hair {do it all the time}
have a facebook/myspace account {have had both}
go weeks without doing laundry {doing this right now}
watch survivor {love it}
own a mini-van {want one}
get acrylic nails {do it on occasion}
wear the same outfit multiple times a week {i'm out of clothes that fit me, people}
nurse my babies {i'm going to give it a go}
be a breakfast person {must have it}
type a smiley face again {we all know how that went}

i really will never:

go blonde again.
wear leggings.
pierce my babies' ears.
read anything by richard paul evans.
go dancing.
watch that devil batman movie again.
deny my crush on duane "the rock" johnson.
go on a cruise with just my husband again. {he's not offended... we agree on this. a group would be more fun.}
have any kind of cosmetic surgery.
eat dominos pizza ever again.

bananagrams.

i found this great game called bananagrams at this little store in sausalito.

you're supposed to make words out of all the little letter tiles, and form a cross-word puzzle kind of deal.

but mostly i just do this.

and this.

have i mentioned i've been watching the bachelor this season?

all i can say is:

jason, you're an idiot.

melissa, i always thought you were the wrong choice for jason, but i felt really bad for you last night. you certainly didn't deserve that. and you handled it well. kudos.

molly, you're an idiot. you seriously took him back after he just broke up with his fiance 2 minutes ago on national tv????? i would be running for my life, not kissing & making up. gross.

jillian, consider yourself lucky you weren't in the final 2.

what the?

check out this comment that was left on my photo blog...

confessions and happy notes.

confessions:

1. i had to use a beach towel when i got out of the shower this morning. that's how long it's been since i did the laundry.

2. when i got home from work the past two days, i did absolutely nothing besides eat dinner, watch tv and go to bed. GROSS.

3. i've eaten terribly this week. and i've felt terrible as consequence.

4. i drank 2 cans of full-caffeine ddp on saturday.

5. i still haven't unpacked my bags from the cabin trip over the weekend.

ok now that you're all thoroughly disgusted with me...

happy notes:

1. even though i felt disgusting watching all of that tv, i was SUPER entertained by american idol. it's so good this year! i seriously love "norman gentle". i think he's hilarious. should he be making it this far? probably not. but i love him.

2. today i WILL unpack my bags, do the laundry and eat better!! i packed a lunch for the first time in who knows how long {a yummy salad with lots of veggies}.

3. the nursery is getting cuter all the time! i'm happy with my choice of bedding, which has been the inspiration for all other decorating choices. it's bright and fun and not too girly, although i have been incorporating some pink into the room. these lamps, this table & this rug are some of my favorite additions.

4. today is the day, ladies and gentlemen. the revealing of baby girl's name. you had to prove yourself worthy of it by reading this whole post! we weren't going to post it until she came, but we decided, what the heck! we're not going to change our minds. our little girl will be named:

Serena
From a Late Latin name which was derived from Latin serenus meaning "clear, tranquil, serene".
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Italian
Pronounced: sə-REEN-ə (English)

it's also a family name on my side. no middle name yet, but we do have a couple in mind.

stamp happy.

somebody from bermuda got a little crazy with the stamps. these were all on one piece of express mail that i received at work today, which contained two pieces of paper. and these were the old school stamps with a perforated edge that you have to lick. maybe bermuda doesn't have the sticker kind yet. anyway... just in case you were wondering what keeps my day interesting at work :)

no good, very bad hair day.

i apologize in advance to anyone who has to see me today. my hair dryer died this morning. for those who have never seen me without my signature "utah pouf"... let me just tell you, it's not pretty. it's a slicked back pony tail for me today, friends. enjoy.

amazing staircases.

{kess sent me these great pictures in an email forward. i think they are totally cool, so i'm sharing!}