We Treasure the Weekends

I thought after writing a sad post I would write a happy one. Don't worry we are still having fun on the weekends, the weeks just seam never ending! Last weekend we went to a Circus de Soleil show. I wore heels and we got all dressed up and went out, it was a ton of fun and what an amazing show. Taylor and I love Circus de Soleil, this is our fourth show we have been to since we got married! We like to spoil ourselves you're only young, married and with no kids once right!

This weekend we had a pool party, and I was in search of a cute modest swimsuit a couple of months ago and I found one at Landsend.com and love it! I usually am not a lover of pool parties but we had a lot of fun last night! We had a BBQ, hot tub, and swimming. It was fun to hang out with all the guys and married couples on the team and celebrate two of their birthdays.

We got really close with our team hanging out this weekend, in more than one way! This is 17 of us all in the hot tub. We really do have such an amazing team, all of the boys are really mature, some fun couples and not to mention we are the 1# team in the company. They make me proud everyday out there selling in the heat.

This is my brave moment of letting Travis and Adam launch me into the air, right after this picture I hit the water hard, and the try before this I hit the bottom of the pool head first haha! I didn't try again after this!

This is Taylor looking way cooler then me and doing a back flip successfully!

Then today Taylor and I taught Primary at church, we had the 9-10 year olds as a joint class today and they were pretty cute! And surprisingly reverent, and we will be doing it again next Sunday its nice to teach together and get that extra hour together singing primary songs :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoys their sunday as much we do at the Phillips. Saturday nights and Sundays are our treasured moments here. Also if you remember pray for Taylor and I, he has to take a test for work and if he fails he could end up moving to Seattle, and I have a test for school if I fail, well nothing bad happens other then that I fail.

Negligence

Well, I guess I owe all those who used to come to my blog for crafting ideas or any such things an apology.  I miss being creative and full of ideas and then the time to carry them out. But sadly I am now in a place in my life where that doesn't seam possible at the moment. As you know we have moved to California and as if school didn't dampen my craftiness enough, the move has seemed to put that flame right out for the time being.

You remember those summers when you were in grade school and you had no responsibility just long weeks at the lake enjoying boating and suntanning, staying out all day and night with friends. Well I do, but then I grew up and I don't think I will ever have a summer even close to that ever again in my life! I had a silly dream living in Cali would be like the American dream, sun, relaxing, all the good stuff you see on movies about the people that live in Cali minus the Drama. Oh how I was foolish to even think that for a second!

Our new life here is driven by work, work, work no time for fun or play but a little Saturday night window which usually ends up hanging out with "The Team" or alone time with my husband which every second counts now! Needless to say life is different here. I didn't even get to bring all my craft boxes with me since we only brought what could fit in our little four door car. Not to mention I have a lot of clothes and shoes I had to bring instead hehe. But I'll update you on our lives for those of you who want to know! We are living in California now, it is a different world here. I have almost got scammed two times already and we have only been here for a little over three weeks.

Taylor works 13 hours days on average and I have a full time job as a Customer Service Loyalty Specialist (in other words a glorified office assistant.) Along with my part time job at the Gap, and my other part time job as a Stella & Dot stylist; along with taking an online class from school. Can you say busy? Three nights a week I also cook dinner for a friend who pays me for my services. Our apartment is also the office which means for about three to four hours a day I have fifteen (loud) boys in my living room and kitchen.

Hopefully once I move back to Idaho I will find that creative spot again in my life and let it flourish like I did last fall. I dream of the day when we move back to Idaho. Never thought I would say that! But it is the truth. Life is a lot more cheaper and similar there. California is not budget friendly in the least!

Love Note

Some of you may remember when I made this cute little fabric note for my husband for Valentines. I have finally gotten around the letting you all know how it can be done. This is more of an idea post then a tutorial because there really is no right or wrong way.

You will need:

A Frame

Embroidery thread (colour of choice)

Black or Charcoal and accent colour sewing thread

Fabric pen

White/Cream Fabric

Ruler

Then you can make this:

1. Take your glass and lay it down on your fabric and trace it so you know how large you need to make it and what will be showing.

2. (Sorry I could not get this picture to load up-right!) Then you want to take a ruler and make your lines just like a loose leaf piece of paper. Your margin line, then drop down an inch before you start the lines going down. It is going to be different depending on size of your frame ect.

3. Now for sewing you lines. I used a charcoal thread, the first line you want to do a double line to make it darker. Then just keep following those lines you drew in earlier. TIP: Make sure you go way farther then the boundary lines you drew.

4. I used a plum purple, but I think a red or deep pink will complete the fake paper much better. But if you want something more budget friendly like me, pick out you most accenting thread. Make sure you go over your margin line twice to make it thicker.

5. Now you have your paper looking fabric below, I got my wet to wash out the fabric pen then I scrunched it up and then it dry to give it a crinkled look. Then you want to use your marker to write your message. You'll want to use two strands of embroidery thread to make your message.

5. My Message!

6. Stick it in your frame, I didn't decorate mine with rossets like I thought I would mostly because I like the simple clean look were attempting to accomplish in our bedroom.

Sneak it onto the night stand while your man is sleeping and when we wakes up he will find a hand made love note that we can wake up to every morning.

My Favourite Flowers

I fell in love with these little flowers I saw on Etsy and knew that I needed to have them. Thankfully I still had some play money in my funds and I ordered them and made these....

I wear these at least once a week, and almost every time I get compliments on them. It was so easy, if you want to make these, which you probably should because they add so much to an outfit all you have to do is find some loose little flower buds likes these and glue them on earring posts.

Or onto Bobby Pins - I put it on two bobby pins to give it more of clip look since I didn't have any clips.

My Feet in the Sand

Minutes after I was approved for my Greencard we hopped in the car and drove for fourteen hours to Newport Beach, CA! I have only been there once but I love it there, such a nice beach view. So sorry but this will be a picture happy post because I liked them all too much!

Taylor and I on the Newport Beach Pier

At the beach, getting burned and dying of heat in my jeans and wool vest!

The hot sand felt so amazing compared to getting snow in my shoes at home

Then had a nice ride on the Farris Wheel!

The view and warm air blowing was so relaxing

Then with the rest of the Phillips Family, we went to Disney Land. I was having so much fun I was so sad when we had to leave hours earlier then everyone else because I had a presentation at school to get back to. It was my first time and I am looking forward to going back because I missed way too many rides!

It was fun seeing where my husband grew up and to have a nice vacation from the cold

The Interview

We had a very exciting couple of days a week ago.

We drove to Boise, Idaho to go to our interview at Homeland Security. We had to have all our things scanned, walk through a medal detector. It was like a mini airport security. I am sure everyone has seen 'The Proposal' where they have to be interviewed. Well, this is what we did, minus the part about the sham marriage and lying! 

We sat down and she asked us our names, birthday, place of birth, parents names, and some other things to quiz us. Asked us how we met, where, and when we were married. Then after them saying we would have to put my application on hold a little miracle happened, they changed their minds and said...

YES

I have been cleared for a Greencard, after more then nine months of paper work and waiting, along with lots of money spent on it we finally have success. This means I can go home to Canada whenever I want, work where ever I want, and live legally in the United States of America. Hopefully just long enough to convince my husband he wants to move to Canada! :)

Oh and I almost forgot... I'm officially Martha Phillips. Many of you wouldn't know this, but I still went by my maiden name because I had to have Homeland security change it for me and its official so its weird having a different name now, but exciting to finally share a name with Tay.

FIREPROOF

My Husband and I watched this movie this weekend. The acting was pretty bad, but the movie was amazing! It had amazing morals, every couple should watch it! Every couple, struggling or not. It teaches so many great principle that we should all be remembering to apply in our relationships and especially our marriage. 

I repeat: Every couple should watch this. It is worth the time.

Sale

We are moving to California, and therefor we are having a moving Sale on my Etsy. We really want to sell a lot of it before we pack up because we can only take the minimum of what fits in our trunk! Thats not a lot, so we are doing a purge. Email me if you would like to barigain - like I said we really want to get rid of everything we can. Thanks so much and I hope you enjoy and take advantage of the sale! I lowered the prices a lot.

From my Amazing Mother

I have great news:

First. My teacher let me take that test even though it was closed and I got 95% on it. I was so relieved.

Second. My Mother is amazing and she framed our wedding pictures for us. They turned out to great, the frames really add to the photos and finally our bedroom! I love them :) Also we have some amazing "museum glass" in them so you can't even tell it has glass covering the pictures. Pretty cool stuff.

So Mom! I took some pictures for you so you can see how wonderful your gift was and how great our room looks without a blank wall.

Also if you live in Idaho Sharps frames is the place to go!

Mother - We Love You!

And we appreciate all that you do for us, so very much :)

Babbling

We had one of those weekends, filled with lots of dishes and work. Taylor is finally finishing up his last weekend with Target thank goodness. I'm sitting at home, feeling homesick and realizing I'm actually just Husband sick, he worked all day today and works all day tomorrow. But the plus side to having a lonely weekend is that next weekend I'll be walking on a beach with my Husband in California, hopefully with an approved green card, so this next weekend will be big for us! We also have our wedding pictures at the frame shop here in town which I'm completely thrilled about. Also we got midterms back this week and I got five A's and one B which I was mostly happy about (minus the B ): ). March is creeping up on me too fast, I have a million projects due this month, that also means finals are only a month away which no matter how hard I study I never feel ready for! I'm so nervous for March, yet excited because that means schools almost out, and warm weather will slowly start coming (crossing my fingers). Well, enough of my babble, I have had a really hard time staying in contact with people lately so sorry family. Hopefully this made you feel a little bit more in touch with me.

Now in this very moment I just realized I was supposed to take a test today and forgot about it. Which is completely unlike me. I am a very very good student, my goal was a 4.0 this semester which once this zero on my test drops my grade by %10 kills that goal. Anyone have good advice for grovelling for a second chance when it comes to Professors?
I am praying with ever fibre in my being he is feeling helpful, and merciful tomorrow...
How in the world will I pass this class with a zero on a test.

Framing

We finally got our wedding photos and now we are tackling framing. Which I am oh so nervous about. It's so expensive and which makes it a one time thing.

Black thick frame... Good right?

My Sweetest Valentine

This Valentine I wanted to do something simple, but something that was thoughtful so I did this. 

I woke up and snuck it on the nightstand beside him. So the first thing he saw in the morning was this...

It's a sewn love note!

Then one of my classes of cancelled, so I skipped my next one to take off early with my hubby. We started off by doing an hour of homework and then took off for the city to share a meal at Texas Road House, which was amazing and so affordable exactly what I was craving!

Then for the surprise....

We drove up in front of massage envy (which you can faintly see in the background). 

He had scheduled a couples massage, it was so relaxing, amazing! The perfect gift and the most amazing Valentine I have ever had! :)

Giveaway

It is the last day for my giveaway over at the FunnerLife, so go check that out and get yourself entered before tomorrow! Also if you don't win, you can still get a discount code here for 30% of for being a part of it. Thanks, hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day!

Hour Glass Pillows

Today I would like to do a mini feature on my sister Esther Beazer, she is a photographer and in turn she has this great style and eye for things that look amazing. Like her bedroom, this is a picture of her bed and I just love it. She made her headboard from an old door, and she just made these adorable pillows to complete the look. They are Amy Butler Hour Glass Pillows, with a free pattern. Yes! Thats right girls free, my favourite word! I just love this picture, and these pillows so I thought I would share a little bit of her inspiration and a free pattern.

Bad Day

Today I had a bad day, my trip to Utah I was looking forward to was cancelled, along with a hard day at dance, piles of assignments, dinner plans spoiled and the list could go on but I'll stop. Also this last couple of days my emotions have been running high. Along with the fact that homework, school, and work work is really taking a toll on me along with cleaning and cooking over and over again. I don't often get time for just me!

So my amazing husband is making us breakfast for dinner right now, right after I had a good cry and ate a couple of these...

Glamourous

Have you been wanting that glamourous chunky necklace like I have but either they are out of your price rang, or plastic! Fear not I will show you how to make one that is neither!

You will Need:

Jewels, beads, crystals whatever works best for you, it should dangle though, like the beads I have shown below. It is on a loop so that the loop attaches the bead to the necklace instead of it going through the bead it self if that makes sense. I got mine at Porters

Thicker jewellery wire

Ribbon

It only cost me $20, because I didn't have any of the materials

Take your wire and wrap it around a pen, then wrap it to close it like shown below.

Thread the beads on the wire, I had two different colours of beads so I did four of each colour in a row.

When your beads are gone, or your at the length you wan it repeat the step above.

Tie your ribbon to the loop, then die two pretty knots like shown above to cover the ugly wire! Repeat on the next side. Then you should have something that looks like this!

Also I had regular crystals on the chains I bought so I used the extra to make a matching bracelet.

Its a great necklace to wear with collared shirts, and with the ribbon closure you can make it shorter.

Franklin

When Taylor and I first got married we said we would get a plant so that our home was filled with fresh air, and all those good things. But after buying a million things we need to start our lives together a plant never made it on the list... until this week! 

This is our little bamboo plant and we names him Franklin, it's an obvious "green" name!

Also did you know that plants can help your mind focus. So we put it in our second bedroom where we study. I'm pretty happy we have one now :) and Taylor was pretty proud when he named him!

Giveaway!

Who doesn't love a giveaway, no one! I am sponsoring a giveaway over at The Funner Life, It is her sweet sixteen birthday and she is doing a countdown of giveaways. She contacted me a month or so ago through etsy telling me how much she loved my stuff so of course I had to be a part of this celebration. Birthdays always seemed to be disappointing when I hit my teens so I hope this helps you have a wonderful Birthday Libbi.

You could win this Yellow and White plaid necklace. With ribbon closure so that you can adjust the length to fit you and your style perfectly.
Also there is a special code to get 30% off everything in my Etsy Shop so go check it out!