I can't think of a better thing to build right now than a little free library! It reminds me of the mailbox that the March sisters shared with Laurie in Little Women. So you can see this over at Etsy and I bet you will instantly get that crazy leg a shakin...itchin to make it...yesterday! I know exactly where ours will go too, right next to the garden and the sidewalk. :) I really can't get over how brilliant this idea is....Hopefully you and I will see more of these pop up all over until they become a common thing, like a mailbox.

I love all these quilts stacked on top of one another. mixing different organic fabrics is so elegant, and then adding assorted patterns and stripes makes it more casual and fun. Plus, this looks insanely cozy and fresh. My favorite is the bottom quilt [currently sold out over at TOAST] that is made from two Ethiopian shawls. The pattern is very lovely.... and  I am also the placement of the little slips poking out under the bed. so cute.

Image found via Remodelista

This picture is currently hanging in one of our guest bedrooms downstairs, it's covering up a huge black spray-painted spot on one of the walls. I'd love to meet the person who decided to do that. Anyways, the quote from Jane Austen on top of the picture is a vinyl that I designed while working at Uppercase Living. Too bad they no longer have it. :( 

I wish I would have cut out more of my vinyl designs when working at Uppercase, because I want to put a quote over the top of this picture [below] that Jesse and I recently acquired. I'll just have to paint it by hand ...I am trying to find a nice saying to go with this one..any ideas/favorites?.....I also really love this Painting of Christ, it has kind of a "Sleeping Beauty" feel to it don't you think.... 

While unpacking more things the other day, I came across my beads. I love coming across old familiar things...even if it's been a couple months since you've seen it. Whatever it is, it usually feels brand new all over again. I haven't made myself some jewelry in awhile, and so I played with them for awhile and came up with some new ideas of what to make. The creative process is so interesting...because I went back to the beads again today and saw even more new ideas that I didn't see on Friday! 

I thought these designs would make for some cute barrette's. Although,

I am not totally sold on the mushrooms...those should probably just be strung.

These are my favorite though. I made the muslin pieces my Sophomore year of college when we started draping with the stuff at school. I got really obsessed with muslin, and the infatuation hasn't ended. It's such a fun, diverse and super affordable fabric to work with. These guys will be made into necklaces. The beads to the right on the muslin piece are from the 1930's. Pretty huh. :)

Lastly....

I mailed one of my Tilly Brooch's last week to none other than my dear friend Tilly.... whom my character was named after. :) And because I love to wrap gifts/packages and I love to see how others wrap things too, I thought it best to animate the process. A nice way to make a package feel even more special for your recipient: wrap in fabric! Especially when you find loads of it for next to nothing at the thrift store, AND in fun unique prints. 

My sister came over yesterday to hang out and with her she brought me these cheese collectors cards. They are from the Beehive Cheese Co. that she picked up at Williams Sonoma, because she knows I love cheese! :) lol I like the little packaging and how it opens up. I have been thinking about what I want to do for my upcoming 31st birthday next month, and I think I know now...visit the Beehive Cheese Co. , specifically to taste that smoked apple walnut! Anyone in the Davis/Salt Lake County or vicinity wanna come with? : [) Too nerdy?

I am sure you have already kick-started your summer reading.... mine officially starts tomorrow! One of my VERY favorite books that I hope you've read but still wanted to share, is "The Hundred Dresses" by Eleanor Estes and illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators Louis Slobodkin. It's about a polish girl living in upstate New York with her Dad and brother during the 40's and is based on a true story. Wanda [the Polish girl] is very poor and in junior high. The school girls always make fun of her because she wears the same dress to school every day, but then one day Wanda tells all the girls that she has 100 dresses....and that's all I am going to share. If you have never read it, I recommend buying it! It makes me cry every time I read it because of the sweet and honest story and because it reminds me of myself one time in junior high and when I spread a very mean rumor about a girl that I didn't like [this was because she was actually never nice too me...but still does not justify my behavior] and our whole class turned against her that she ended up having to switch classes. I never got over that until 9th grade when she and I became friends again...I still cringe every time I think about what I did. :[  But that is not the book I will be reading tomorrow...it is Eleanor Estes' other book The Middle Moffat which is book two of her Moffat series. :)

and then this book that I absolutely had to share: Making Faces by Norman Messenger. How funny and awesome is this? I can only imagine the fun kids would have with this book...perfect for church, car rides, vacations, doctor visits...you can get the "Famous Faces" version HERE for only 1 penny!!

Have a great weekend. :)

With Father's Day nearing, I have been thinking about what to get my Dad.

I will probably get him a book, but I wanted to include something unpredictable,

 so I did this little painting for my Dad of C.S. Lewis.

But guess what, you too can give it to your Dad!

 Its size is 5x7, just click on the picture and drag to your desktop. 

*Best to print it on some nice paper or even take it to the printers.

 Either way, I think your Dad will be happily surprised to get a little 

painting of C.S. Lewis..either framed or used as a card....that is, if he is a fan. :)

p.s. THIS book about a famous dad and raising his 5 kids sounds like a pretty funny read!

New Roxy Marj items have been added to my shop! 

Fabric envelopes! A couple more patterns and colors coming soon.

Brooch's that will make that outfit just a little more unique.... :)

and some pillows for your cute kids' bed....or you...

HEY! I don't discriminate with my designs, even if they seem childish.

So I recently switched back to Etsy from Bigcartel. As much as I like Bigcartel's more streamlined look, sadly it doesn't make up for traffic. Just these past two days of being back on Etsy , I have received the same amount of views of 4 months of Bigcartel! That's insane!

Annnyways...I love having items up in my shop, because that usually means giveaways! 

Check back soon. :)

This past weekend both Jesse and I got a lot done. Which was exciting because it means that the future weekends to come we will be able to do absolutely nothing if we choose... actually that will really happen once our roof is re-shingled. But other than that, we have the next couple years to work as slow as we want on our house now that the upstairs is 75% complete.

First though, Jesse and his brother Kyller built a picket fence around our garden using old fencing Kyller had found. I love it,  and I love how rustic it looks. The little gate is also a favorite. Part of it is the old window from our garage, Jesse knocked the glass out and voila...you got yourself a garden gate!

's 

We acquired some chairs from Jesse's dad's house last week and I decided to recover them with my two Ikea rugs [$3 each] so they would have a hearty look and feel to them. I also liked that they already had red and black in them to tie in with our kitchen.

Side note: our friends Scott and Lyric brought us a little house warming gift the other day and I thought it was too cute not to share. Definitely framing this little print and putting it up in our kitchen! Scott's sister Lindsay drew this and I think sells them at the Farmers Market? You can check out her blog here. 

The office.....oh the office. I cannot tell you how nice it has been to finally have our office done. I was starting to feel like a hermit with being stuck in our bedroom all day with the blinds closed, so as not to put a glare on the computer screen...That was probably the hardest thing for me about doing this fixer-upper, was being stuck in one room all day long...and it doesn't help much when you get those nasty blues... :/  But it's done, and it doesn't feel claustrophobic anymore! :)

Keep in mind...each room still has some minor tweaks [like curtains, lighting, artwork & shelves hung] but overall the whole upstairs is starting to feel complete.  The desk below in our office was a fun little project to work on with Jesse. It's really neat to put our heads together and see what we can come up with...i've said it before and i'll say it again, I love working with my husband and learning new things from him. i.e. the metal hardware on our desk that we got was galvanized [very cheap by the way, at Home Depot] and to get that worn look, Jesse told me to sand the exposed sides down with our electric sander, dig a hole, bury them with water, cover with dirt and then wait a day or two to uncover...such a difference and I love the subtle look it brings.

Lastly, the living room. This room has taken the longest...and still has a little ways to go, but we were finally able to move the furniture in. Those floors are a little different than the hallway and office. We actually scrubbed those floors with brillo pads to take away the stain to make the floor look really old..it reminds Jesse of the way people use to stain their floors in the beginning with tar [?] <- I had never heard of that before, but sounds really interesting and cool!

You may be wondering whose dog that is... or not. :) Well as of yesterday this little guy is ours! His name is Harley and he has been Jesse's family dog for the last 10 years. His dad is moving down south to Provo and because Harley has a tendency to runaway a lot, they were afraid he would be gone for good...plus,  Jesse's dad and stepmom aren't as home as much. So when they suggested [or we offered? I forget] we take Harley both Jesse and I were totally on board! Today was his first day here and it was too cute and familiar of when I had my two yorkies years ago. I have missed soooooooo much having a pet companion. There is nothing like having animals around, especially the kind that follows you wherever you go in the house. Hilarious! They are such a comfort to the human soul!

Early this afternoon I walked into our bedroom and saw Harley laying on our bed in the sunlight and just had to take a picture of how cute that moment was. No, this blog isn't going to turn into a Harley loooove fest, however if there is an adventure that he goes on that needs to be shared...well, I don't really have a choice now do I? :-[) 

Hey there!  Yep still here on this planet of ours....just chugging away at thee old house...still sanding, painting, stripping [not that kind] weeding, mowing and cleaning. I think someone needs to start a gym called HOUSE...and you just do all the things that you would if you owned a house. Saturday I spent 4+ hours weeding a 4'x6' patch by the driveway and then moving rocks around to create a nice little boarder. I not only got a workout but I got some sun. I went from a sickly pale to a healthy pale that day...anyways, someone start that gym, or come over to mine. I only charge $5 a month and I provide drinks from Maverick! Beat that Madonna! lol :)

More house picks as you read on but first the continuing of sharing Olive Us : Making Taztziki  <- ever done that before? This video not only shows you how in easy steps BUT it's so visually stimulating and inspiring. I hope you like....I had so much fun doing these illustrations and Tiger in a Jar went and animated the faces and ohhhhh maaaa gawsh, I died!

Another little thing I finally finished up is Alta's flower book for my friend Grace, here are my favorite pages:

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Now onto house stuff.... So, I have regrets of not taking tons of actual before photos, because this house was really dated and gross when we moved in. One of the first things we did was rip up most of the carpet in the upstairs...the bedroom we are in and the stairs to the basement still have it's carpet...that will probably be tackled in a month or two. But for now we just focused on the office, hallway, and the living room, which already had hardwood floors but needed major sanding. Luckily underneath all the carpet upstairs was the original flooring, not hardwood but fir, and good enough to sand [very easy to sand] takes stain well and varnish. If you have anything with paint that needs to come off...BUY SOME PAINT STRIPPER! <- this will save you hours of work and sore muscles! Helpful tip: use the stripping tool [instead of a paint brush] to smear on whatever surface you have, and smear generous amounts <- just make sure it is at least a 1/4" thick. To save money I thought I would be smart and spread it on thin [this was in our kitchen cupboards with 5 layers of paint] that turned into a huuuuge mess, and I did more work of scrapping and sanding than needed. 

p.s. When applying the varnish, I would recommend using a stain pad rather than the wooly pads as seen in the picture above. They leave little hairs behind, and with a dark floor...It was making me crazy. Luckily after sanding the first coat of varnish down [with our hands and a fine grit paper] we applied the next 2 layers with the stain pad...<- looked soooo much better!

Our kitchen. Still a work in progress.  Jesse lifted that cupboard that is above the microwave so I would have ample space with cooking/baking. We still need to fix the doors and put them back on that cupboard. The rest of the cupboards with our dishes and flour/oils etc. are exposed on purpose..we took those doors off. We changed the hardware, which we now regret jumping on that quickly because we ended up getting something that we liked but weren't in looove with. Two days after buying those handles and knobs we found some awesome iron hardware that we had been wanting but were too impatient to wait for...Anyways, one of the hundreds of morals of owning a fixer-upper that I am learning is to have a ton of patience. A ton! p.s. the couch in the kitchen... it's pretty sweet actually, and I will be sad to see it going into the living room here soon... our plan with seating is to build a built in L-shaped bench that spans the entire length of the wall with the big window. It should be pretty cozy. :) Oh! And Jesse is replacing the counters with butcher block counters...which he is going to make himself. I was very apprehensive about this, but after a couple long conversations I learned that I just need to trust him and trust that he will do a good job. :) 

The outside is coming along slowly, but surely as well. I planted a lot of "cottage-like" flowers in the front and left side of the house. This was an interesting task to take on mainly because Jesse gave me free reign to do whatever I wanted. Another thing was that picking & planting flowers can be very intimidating, especially since this is really the first time I have ever done anything like this...on my own. So I did a lot of research, figured out what zone Utah is in and what flowers/plants work best in our climate. One of the things I learned that said a lot "beginners" overlook is to think of scale and proportion. <- I had never thought of that before. So in the front I got some Delphiniums, Lupine, Lavender, Lamb's Ear, Dusty Miller, Hydrangeas and transplanted a very mature white Peony bush. Another interesting fact I learned was about Hydrangeas. Right after you plant one, cut off all the blossoms! This then creates two new blossoms where you cut off the one. I had a hard time believing that but the guy in the video [I wish so badly I could find it again] promised that in a couple weeks time, you would have double the blossoms! I am eagerly waiting for this. :)

My mom gave us some heirloom seeds as a house warming gift [cute idea huh.] and due to lack of time right now I found a very quick way to get your starts going. I found that container of 72 dry pellets at Smiths Marketplace, you fill it with 10 1/2 cups of water, the pellets expand, you make a center hold in each one, drop 2-3 seeds, cover with lid, put in warm spot away from the sun, once every seed has rooted, take the lid off and put near the sun, after a week of that you then keep them outside and cover with lid at night...a week later they are all ready to plant! I am excited to have a garden and see what is and isn't successful...and to save a lot of money. Next week we put up the 6' posts and chicken wire [we get deer here] and start ah planting! YEE-HAW! 

We finally got started on building our office desk last night... It will be 10' long with and extension coming out in the middle to create a his and her space. I have been dreaming and dreaming of this day. Seriously, I have ...and loosing sleep over the best way to make use of our space and most cost efficient, but without loosing style.

Nearing the end of this crazy long post! lol The other day I came across one of those half moon wood bead foot massager things at the thrift store, and decided to take the beads of their sticks, put it on some rope and  make it into a strand of beads with a loop at each end. This thing ROCKS! I have been massaging sore muscles on my back in diagonal movements, using it on my neck, and then looping one over another bead and then putting it on the floor for my feet. <- my favorite. It does exactly the same thing, but I like this look so much better. Anyways, I know you can buy these same size beads at your local craft store and make the same thing for under a couple dollars! It's pretty sweet! I am tempted to paint some faces on them now... :/

Okay, now the end for realz! I saw this little photo in my latest issue of Country Living yesterday and thought it soo cute and worth sharing! I still have my dream of owning a miniature donkey [actually 2!] and hopefully that will come true with our next house after this....someday. :) Have a great weekend!

p.s. if you are and avid gardner/yard-worker/fixer-upper afficiando and have ANY tips for us on how to save money, time, whatever...please do share! This whole house thing has been extremely overwhelming some days with feeling all alone and not knowing what to do. I give you full permission to take me under your wing and make me your protege... and you my mentor! :)

A project I just started working on is another little flower book for my friend Grace's new baby Alta. <- Isn't that name so pretty. :) I want this book to have more animals in it...because those two things go together so well. Below is the cover.

And what I have on repeat right now.... if you have a song currently on repeat too, do share. I love finding new music or being reminded of favorite songs that have been forgotten.

Kate Bush : Them Heavy People

Fine Young Cannibals : She Drives Me Crazy <- Another 5th grade favorite...that I blasted, and thought I was sooo mature. I can't wait for Jesse and I have to kids just for this reason. I am SO curious as to what music they will respond to and make them dance all crazy like! :-[) 

Gabrielle of Design Mom and her husband Ben Blair, have created a new website/tv show called Olive Us There you will find mini webisodes of basically the daily life and/or adventures that their 5 kids take on. <- Seriously, I wish I was born into this family...these kids are so neat!

Anyways, my friends Julie and Matt of Tiger in a Jar [the people filming the Blair kids] asked if I would be interested in doing the simple text and illustrations for Olive Us. I happily took on this little job....yeah right! I was seriously doing cannonballs in the bathtub! :-[) I am in love with all things creative from Julie and Matt, and so an opportunity to work with them on a project...yeah, I'm gonna hobo snag that in a heartbeat!

Here is the first episode of Olive Us. It's so inspiring and I am definitely looking forward to new ones each week! And make sure to tell your friends! :)

I just finished watching the first webisode of "Red Table Talks", which is produced by Jada Pinkett-Smith.

This first webisode, Jada sits down with her ADORABLE daughter and sweet mother, and they all talk about some really interesting topics...I am not going to tell you what they are because you should watch it.

I have always been a fan of Jada Pinkett-Smith, but now I think I am definitely a follower! I heavily gravitate towards people who are real and honest with themselves and others, and that is a trait that I try to emulate as much as possible in myself. I wish I could be great friends with the Smiths, they seem like the coolest family. 

One of the things that Jada touched on [geared specifically to her daughter Willow] was how important it is to take care of yourself. Jada's words: "When you stop taking care of yourself, you get out of balance and you really forget how to take care of others." <- I know that statement all too well... :/  anyways, if you love Jada Pinkett-Smith, you will love the Red Table Talks, along with her mannerisms, style and how sweet she is to her daughter and mother, and vice versa. There is nothing sweeter than a mother who loves and adores her kids, and seeing their kids love and adore their mom right back. What a role model! :) That reminds me of something I saw in church months ago. The Mormon church worship service is 3hrs long [every Sunday] and the first hour is Sacrament, and the last two hours are split up into classes for adults and children. The children go to what is called "Primary", and I happened to be in the Primary Presidency of my last ward..[ward is to the Mormon church as District is to public schools] I was the second counselor in the presidency and our President, Amy...happened to be doing the lesson for all the kids that day. Amy has 4 kids and they are all in the Primary, ages 4,7,9,11 and I remember Amy giving the lesson and her kids just looking at her with the highest admiration a child could have for their mother. It was so sweet that I was having to wipe tears from my eyes...I remember thinking that day, "I want to be a mom just like Amy" <- I looked up to her in so many ways, and still do. 

Anyways, I hope you will take the time to watch this series and support an uplifting program, especially since they are so few and far between these days. 

Red Table Talks: Jada Pinkett-Smith, Willow Smith Talk Love, Family

Been on a blogger hiatus for a couple weeks due to a couple big changes that have happened recently. First one being that I got laid off from my job at Uppercase Living. Don't feel bad for me, this was actually a very good thing. The company got bought out by some venture capitalists who then got rid of most of the design team... the new direction that they are headed would have caused me to quit anyways...so all in all it was a really good thing. But even better was the timing. Then the second thing...two days after I got laid off, Jesse and I got a house in Centerville, Utah [a short sale] and was able to move in right then! So as not to pay two rents...I got in gear and spent the last 2 1/2 weeks doing mini moves while Jesse was at work. It all happened so quickly .... and the thought of trying to move all our non-packed items after getting home from work would be so tiring...anyways, it all worked out.  In the meantime, I have been spending my days, painting, sanding, scrubbing, vacuuming, weeding etc. and enjoying it so much. I love turning something old/un-used/un-loved into something desirable again. I am excited to see our little home go through the changes in the next couple of years, it will be a fun adventure. :)

Our house is a cute little 1937 Tudor fixer-upper on a .29 acre lot.

The fireplace is gas, which just needs to be hooked up. This was one of the big selling points for me with this house, among the round door and darling chimney to boot.

Our lil home is super close to the mountains, and because we live on a corner lot it makes for some amazing views any time of day... :) 

The house also came with a wonderful walnut tree...among other mature trees [a bonus] and a detached garage that is perfect for Jesse and his projects. Inside the garage was an orchard ladder that is so cute. I've been telling people we bought it at Restoration Hardware for only $1,200! lol hehehe...yeah right!

And then there are quite a few flowers all over as well, that makes me appreciate our home even more.

A couple of things that I wasn't quite prepared for is the relationship I will have once again with bugs...mostly speaking of spiders. Growing up in Washington, we had spiders all over and it was no big deal. I would squish the dime sized ones with my finger's all the time.  I think as I got older I became a wuss and tried to kill any bug I saw in sight...now that we have a house, I am trying to let them have their own space as long as they let me have mine...excluding the inside of the house. I did though bug-bomb the heck out of it before moving in. If you come for a visit, I will take you to the basement and then you will see why....

I am excited to share the before's and after of our home with anyone who reads my blog ... and as always, hope to inspire those reading as I get inspired by you as well. :)

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On another happy note. Jesse's younger brother Ben is marrying his awesome fiance Karrisa today. Everyone is so excited for her to join the Barrus family, and have the whole family complete. I love my sister-in-laws...I really couldn't have married into a better family, and to get another one whose spirit and personality is so infectious is such a blessing! :] I love weddings and all the happiness and love that come with it. So excited for today!

Above, is a little veil that Jesse's sister Megan asked me to make for Karrisa to wear at her bachelorette party. I thought it was such a cute idea and wanted to make it as cute and vintage-esque as possible. Megan suggested we go to The Tavernacle after us ladies had dinner. To those who live in Utah, have you ever been? It was quite a hoot and a perfect place to have a bachelorette party!...another trip is definitely in the works. Well I best be getting ready now... it's good to be back my friends. :) More posts on the way. xo

It's been about 8 or so years since I last had an actual business card made. I finally buckled down and got some made a couple months ago. I hired my friend Zach Jones, owner/operator/designer of On the Trolley Letterpress to print these ladies up for me. BEST investment I have made in a long time, and one that my husband approved of! Also, it just makes my orders that I mail off all that more professional. :) <- I bet some of you just said "ah DUH!" lol :-[) Late bloomer here folks! :)

 If you're in need of business cards yourself, or custom prints etc. 

Contact Zach for a quote or to have a custom design made

Just saw this amazing boot house for mice over at Vintage Jane. Totally inspired! :) When I was around 11 years old and getting really good at using a glue-gun, I started constructing my own little home from a 12"x12" cardboard box...that thing grew to be over 4' long and 2' feet high because I just kept glue-gunning more rooms on to it. I eventually had to move it under the stairs since it was taking up too much space in me and my little sister's bedroom. I worked on that home for about a year....and then sadly, I have NO idea what happened to it. I have no pictures of that creation and I regret it so much. If only digital cameras existed back in 92'. :/ 

An honest post about spending & saving money: 

Two books I am obsessed with..

the "FIX IT" one will be discussed on another day.

A book that I finished reading a couple weeks ago and could NOT put down was:  "Money Secrets of the Amish". After reading "The Simple Home" a couple months ago, I have been working really hard on getting rid of unnecessary things around our apt., so when we do actually move into our little home [oh! we got a home by the way, and move in a couple weeks to Centerville] the spaces will be very simple, cozy, and I easy to clean.  I have also been working hard this year on saving money but more importantly, not buying things because I am bored, sad, or just because we do have money...  I didn't have training on good money habits growing up as some of my friends did, and that has always been something that has weighed on me. Sure I can blame my parents, but I am an adult. Plus it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to save money...you buy only what you REALLY need [that's where true honesty with yourself comes in to play] you live within your means [again, honesty] and you save and wait for things.

So I did a search on amazon for books about saving money  [this is a major struggle for me guys!] and that's when I came across "Money Secrets of the Amish" <- I justified buying this book with the hope that it will act as a preventative in the future.  This book has helped me in so many ways and has totally shifted my thinking about money and it's value/worth  180 degrees!  The main reason though, why this book jumped out at me was because it is all about Amish people and how they live their lives simply and save a TON of money. No, I am not going to go and join an Amish community...but I gleaned so much from this book, that since reading it....I have consistently been asking myself every time I want to buy something: "What would the Amish do?" And I have been able to be honest with myself, and forgo making that purchase. I think more importantly, Jesse has seen a huge change in me too. I want so badly to be a good example to my kids and teach them good habits and omit as much unnecessary stress and anxiety from their lives as possible...and a lot of that has to do with money. And it has to start with me and Jesse, who fortunately does not struggle with this issue.

Anyways...I could go on...and I will, but that will be in a couple days. :)  Here are some things from the book that I can't get out of my head :

A couple things from the author, Lorilee Craker

1. "Discovery the money secrets of the Amish gave me and my family a "Total Money Makeover" of a different kind. Beyond tips on saving, spending, and investing, I learned how to live a lifestyle extravagant in peace, sharing, family, and community closeness."

2. "I realized that thrift is more of a muscle, and I intended to work that muscle until it was strong and lean and powerful enough to withstand temptations of all kinds" <- love that!

From the Amish families that were interviewed & other books quoted : 

1. "When work is done and the cows are milked, the millers have fun together, playing badminton and making soft pretzels and homemade ice cream." <- Now, I understand that not everyone is into playing outside as a family together...but the main important thing here is that all those activities require little, or no money at all. So many families make shopping together their outing... :/ which to me doesn't build strong family and or friend units.

2. "Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without." 

3. "It is human nature to want it and want it now; it is also a sign of immaturity." <- quoted from Dave Ramsey's book "Total Money Makeover" and he goes on to say: "be willing to delay pleasure for a greater result is a sign of maturity. <- that was something that struck me and made me realize how immature I had been with money...pretty much my whole life. :/

4. "We are taught not to just buy whatever we please, but rather work and save to pay for it." <- They do this EVEN if they have money to buy what they want....and ironically what they want is very little compared to what most of us all want on a daily basis.

5. "When children grow up in an individualistic society, they soon accumulate in themselves a desire for more things, said Dr. Donald Kraybill, whom we met previously. [Plain] children are not individualistic. They all dress the same, and when you grow up in a family of six to eight children, you soon learn the pie is cut into smaller pieces. The biggest thing is, Amish parents have the community to back them up when they say no to their children; you don't" <- So true! Hopefully though, you and your partner are on the same team, and back one another up! 

SO! With all that mentioned...hopefully you are inspired!? Or if you're already disciplined with your money...well, I am a huge admirer of yours!  Since that book, I have gone through our apartment and constructed a pretty lengthy list of all the ways we can save money, and a lot of it!  This is one of them:

Food! A big chunk of money is lost when not planning meals. This isn't a new idea and most of you already know about that. However, even though I know this..I wasn't implementing it in our life. So I decided that I needed visual references to help me do this. I also like making meals that share many of the same ingredients...plus, that naturally saves money. :) 

So what I did was print out pictures of some favorite meals from my pinterest board [you can obviously do this with a magazine too] and then I rubber-cemented them on to heavy cardstock.

I then found some clothespins in our tool box, and clipped them on the side of our chalk board in the kitchen. I  then wrote the basic ingredients that each meal needs next to the image. To the left of that is a column for what I need to buy for any of the meals.

And then on the back of each picture is the actual recipe and website.  The simple recipe below is of the cucumber -lemon water.

Slowly but surely I will get better about saving money and wanting less. Like Lorilee says "Thrift is more of a muscle" <- and muscles don't come over night...they come little by little. :)

I recently came across Mimi's Circus...and I am in love.

 So many cute children's inspiration. My favorite!

Last night Jesse suggested we get out of the apt., drive up Emmigration Canyon, and take some long exposures. I had forgotten how quickly one's eyes adjust to the dark, and not long after we could see everything pretty clearly. Having an almost full moon helped in that dept. as well.

I don't think I will ever tire of seeing images with stars...they totally blow my mind. 

What if they weren't really stars, but just holes in the sky...same goes for the moon.

Our faces look completely photoshoped on our bodies, but they are not. 

The only thing that has been jimmy-rigged is me and Jesse's pic. They were taken separately. 

Lastly, I was taking some pictures of the moon...

and then all of a sudden I got struck by lightning...

clearly I survived to tell about it.... and, I feel much smarter since last night. Awesome.