my current obsessions...

once upon a time there was a book. while searching the shelves for other peoples holds i stumbled upon a wonderful thing. this wonderful thing was a book. a book that i had been eying for weeks {ever since i had prepared it to circulate there at the library} but alas had never checked out or put it on hold because there was too long a line of people waiting for it and i simply did not have any time to make these wonderful creations that this book had inside. but as luck would have it, the one weekend where i had decided that i would devote to sewing and craft making.... lo and behold i find the book on the shelf, just waiting for me to happen upon it and take it home! yay! you are all wondering what book this might be. lucky for you i'm about to tell you! it is called sew liberated {you can go to the wonderful website with even more great things here}. its cute, it has the most wonderful projects inside, and someday i will make all of these projects namely:

• the clock {pictured below ; pg.37}
• the 'teacup corset apron' {pictured below ; pg.19}
• the 'jersey garden skirt' {pg.55}
• the 'bird in hand laptop bag' {pg.49}

and . . . . .

• the 'baby's first book' {pg.95}

but at the moment i am making the most wonderful thing ever !!!

drum roll please....

the 'dapper day bag'

{pictured below ; pg.75}

its my dream bag, or at least as close as i'll get to my dream bag.

and since my dream bag is not sold anywhere i'm going to make it.

myself. this weekend.

it is going to be fabulous!

Jake and i went shopping yesterday for the fabric

{which is fantastic}

and on our way home i convinced Jake to stop by this cool lookin' place called 'The Antique Mall'. this place is wonderful. if you are ever in want of old cool stuff. go there. when we have a house, i'm shopping there for some cool decor and furniture. Sooo... if you are ever in Logan and want something to do. go to 'The Antique Mall' its at the intersection that splits on two on main street

{where you first come into Logan}

next time i post i hope to have cute pic's of our apartment and our decorating job

...

we'll see how that goes ;)

keeping carp in the bedroom

In the lonely hours that my best friend isn't home it gets to be um... Lonely. I thought that cooking would make me happy cause it tastes so good and the truth is that cooking makes you fat. Yes cooking is why it is so hard to keep weight off. No one gets mad at the cook for taking more than his helping in the kitchen, He's only "testing" it. So now I'm lonely and i feel guilty that I have tummy. While i know the solution to a gut is working out and eating less, I think i have found a monumental fix-it for the loneliness situation.
GOLDFISH! Keeping fish in general is fun but Goldfish are the Kings of the pet fish world. I'll admit we tried some other fish before. In total they cost more than a hot and ready pizza, which is the standard for living cheap and frugal(even than though you like brickoven or pizzahut, if its more than five dollars for a large pepperoni you have to say no). These fish all died in sequential order of seniority and ended with the cute little crab.
Having an empty two-gallon aquarium was not an option so we went back to petsmart and found the poor man's pet... The Goldfish! Now i know what you are all thinking, especially my Dad who happily cares for an amazing seascape in his office. You are all saying, "Well duh i can get one of those at a carnival and it will die in a week, and even if it lives its a dirty fish." YES, you can get it at a carnival! That's because it's so insanely cheap to buy. I mean at $0.13 a head i can buy a whole pond of them before i even get close to the $5 large pizza scale.
The truth is the common Goldfish is one of the most amazing and historical fish in the entire pet shop. You cannot even imagine how much the goldfish family has been through. All the way back in the 7th century the Chinese took a big, brown, and ugly carp( yes that is correct, a carp. That slimy thing you play whack-a-mole with on the docks of Lake Powell) and bred them to have the bright shiny golden colors. And here's the cool part, they can get to be as big as 16" and they will eat table scraps just like a dog(in smaller helpings).
Our new room mates are called Flo and Spock. Flow is a Comet Goldfish(they have longer tails) and Spock is just a Common Goldfish with gold and white patches. Kylee likes talking to Spock who stares at her through the glass and mouths things back to her. Personally I don't think he has anything interesting to say.

Flo just likes to dance around the bubble volcano and show off her long fins.

As soon as we own our own home I am going to make them a pond in the back yard. and here's the cool part... Dogs and cats only live to be about 15-18 years old, leaving you to try and explain to the kids what happened to fluffy and scratch. Goldfish will long out live dags and cats. One Goldfish that just died in England was 44 years old. And if anyone has heard of the Goldfish's cousin the Koi, they live to be much older. one was scientifically proven to be 227 years old when he died. He outlived two of his owners and was on his third when he kicked the fish bucket.
BUY A GOLDFISH AND MAKE YOUR LIFE HAPPIER!

~Jake, i want a bigger tank!

Timeless times

time spent back in Utah valley is always bittersweet. having both families so close together makes it hard to decide which family we will visit. The forth of July made this problem not so difficult since there was lots of time to spend with both families. The best part was having both the Jensen's and the Wood's together for the fireworks on Saturday and the parade on Monday. our Goal next year will be to find a way to get home from the fireworks without waiting two hours in traffic.
Every year before the parade starts i like to watch the athletes who do the Freedom Run and cheer them on. This year however i got a surprising phone call at 5:30am and an hour later i found myself in line for this years 5K run with no previous training whatsoever. Teresa and I finished the race in under thirty minutes which is not bad considering i haven't run that far in almost a year. Today thought (nearly three days after) my body feels like I'm thirty years older than i am and i can't stand up without groaning. I remember when i was little and i could run all day with out hurting, What happened?
there was only one point of this weekend that made me sad, There came the opportunity to take a motorcycle trip with my dad for a few hours but it was not an activity that Kylee enjoys as much as i do. We decided to part ways for the few hours and she went for a BBQ at her family's house. I do not regret going on the trip, I just didn't enjoy being far from Kylee. For all those guys who take girls up to Squaw Peak to hold a "saliva swap meet" your really missing out on all the scenery that is just i few miles further in. Of course you have to go during the day and its not likely to take a Toyota Camry on that dirt road(though we did see someone's grandparents attempt it, if they are missing this week I know exactly where they are and how they got stuck. Also note to self: never buy a used Camry from old couples!) The green back behind the first row of mountains almost rivals that of the amazon Jungle, and i would know because I've seen both. If you do go up there take a good book, not to read but to press all of the amazing flowers up in the fields. You may just fill the first hundred pages of your book.