Friday Favorites

Hi guys! This ghetto post is coming to you from a 12-person van on its way to California. Matt's sister's wedding is giving us all an excuse to party at the beach this weekend. We filled up the van with babies and family and left at 4am. Babies and family and vans, oh my!

Here are two little links for y'all.

Five tips from a mom.

Put your money where your happy is. (I'm currently trying to do this).

Friday Favorites

Hello hello! What are you up to this weekend? The weather is so nice outside, so I'll probably go on a nice walk. Since we're moving soon, I'm also in spring cleaning mode. Every time we move, I use the opportunity to get rid of things I haven't used in months. And maybe I'll open up the house and use the balcony to do some weird tanning! We live on a busy street...#noshame.

Who am I kidding? I wrote that and then realized, I have to work all day Saturday, and Sunday will be spent listening to awesome LDS General Conference. Links!

A town with no roads?!

Wut?

Have you ever had lavender lemonade (minus the alcohol)? The hippy herb shop in Springville sells it and it's so good.

Has anyone done Bountiful Basket? How do you get started?

I might have to make this to keep my kids at school happy.

Four Target must-buys.  Do you agree? What would be on your must-buy list?

I've heard wonderful things about this.

Would you use this? Seems superfluous.

A good thing to remember.

A crazy way to teach love and hate to children.

Friday Favorites

What a week! I have been kind of stressed out lately, trying to make some big, adult life decisions. We have decided to move...again. I love our current apartment, but we need to save up money to do awesome things like take that cruise in August. Adulthood. The good news is that we will be living next door to Matt's brother and his awesome family. I'll be able to cuddle babies basically all the time now! And if we save enough money, we will go down to Costa Rica to visit them while they're living there this summer. So, I'm trying to think positive. It's all about the upside. BTW, look how big that moon is! Links...

Every time I see a daschund I freak out a little.

A scientific reason for that delicious old book smell.

15 ways to reduce anxiety.

This game might have to happen at the next family party. I've only heard good things about it.

Homemade tootsie rolls.

One trick to become more interesting.

Does anyone remember these?

Did you know that I know American Sign Language? I'm bad at learning languages, but ASL came pretty easily to me. I sat next to a deaf woman at a conference last month, and was too shy to talk to her. But I watched the translator for the full hour and understood almost everything she was saying, even after four years. Here are 100 basic words in ASL.

A recipe for any color you could think of for DIY cupcake frosting.

Printable anchor wrapping paper.

50 perfectly timed photos.

A great confidence booster.

Friday Favorites

Cheers! It's Friday! I have been sick for most of this week, so I have been spending a lot of time perusing the depths of Hulu, writhing around in pain/mostlyboredom on my bed, and letting my imagination run wild all over the internet (see, tickld and Pinterest). There were some great things that happened, though. I got a letter from my friend who is on her mission in Spain, and I found this gem above. Nick and Schmidt may be my favorite characters on New Girl. The writers/actors have done a good job of making the characters develop as the show moves forward.  The pin I found said, "He's like the human version of grumpy cat." So true. Here are the links!

Wut?

Disney Princesses in accurate period costume. I had to.

This should be a thing.

A great idea for extra space.

The Secrets of Disney revealed. So much Disney.

My FBF posted this the other day. It's a great read about the importance of family narrative.

Friday Favorites (a day late)

I hate excuses. I just didn't do it.

The sunshine is back in Provo! I can't express how much better I feel when the sun is around. Can I bottle this feeling up and save it for three months from now when I'll be tempted to complain about the heat? 

This week: my mom is in town because my sister had a wee little behbeh, I'm recovering from my jaunt in Texas, and I'm wishing I had a superpower called a MAID. 

Linky links:

Printable paper dolls for Disney princesses, Wicked, and Les Miserables?!

This would be a fun gift.

How to use a beauty blender (I'm thinking about getting one).

Google keeps blowing my mind. Check out Google Lit Trips.

A great-smelling bathroom in one step.

This dandelion puff jar melts my heart.

Brunch is a thing that should happen more often.

This Honey Peach Frozen Yogurt only has 3 ingredients. (Can you guess what they are? Haha.)

A guide on how to start running.

10 dream vacation destinations. 4, 6 + 8, please.

The best of Stefan on SNL.

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, y'all! We are just getting all kind of inspired over here in Texas! Above is a picture of the cattle drive we went to down at the Stockyards. We planned all these exciting "authentic" Texan things to do while we're here. Turns out this one was not as exciting as we hoped. It was literally 20 cows walking down a street for maybe 15 seconds, and the show was over. Hopefully the rodeo on Saturday will redeem my Texas dream. Here are the links!

DIY constellation scarf

Speaking of scarves...

this color combination

I wonder if I could make this chandelier myself...

What do you think of this tornado body dryer? I kind of like the idea...but it's so ugly. Maybe if space could figure out to make a built-in one that comes out of the wall when you need it.

There's a reason these Disney films cut some songs from the story.

When we went to the Dallas Museum of Art, we found out about this fun new program that gets visitors engaged. It worked! If you live near Dallas, do it. Do it now.


American men could use this advice.


This restaurant may make me have a heart attack. Matt would love it.

Or even better (worse?)... a whole hotel.

Wantwantwantwantwantwantwant.

Look at this kid's party! Where was this when I was five?

Friday Favorites

found here

Whatcha doing this weekend? I'm going out if town next week for work, so this weekend will be spent doing whatever the heck I want!! That probably means a temple trip and some best friend time. We're trying to save up for our flight to Miami so I'll also be trying to spend no money.

This airport concept would make me so happy. My question is, who washes the sheets?

I don't love pie, but I would if it always came like this!

Whaaaaat? Have you heard of Google Glass? It's basically a computer/phone built into glasses. You can take pictures and videos, see directions, Google pictures of tigers, maybe even Pinterest? Does anyone want to give me $1500? That'd be great. Kthanks.

A cute comment card from a kid at the MoMA.

I would buy this in a minute if we got a dog.

Oh My-lanta. This just added Atlanta to my bucket list.

This place looks like a dream.

85 year old best friends. This will be me and Jeannette in 60 years.

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, errbody! This weekend I'm in St. George for an art education conference for work. Any suggestions on where to eat down here? We come down here a lot, but I haven't found a place that I love yet. Here are some links to get you through the weekend without me ;)

The red thread of fate. 

Check out this Irish inn.

A sexy calling card.

How to arrange items on your bookshelf so they look straight out of a magazine.

The psychology of music.

If you're a teacher, this might save your life.

A gift-wrapping trick.

How to peel an entire head of garlic in 30 seconds flat.

And this business card is genius.

Friday Favorites

How was your Valentine's Day yesterday? I came into work to find my desk decorated (secretly, the night before) with lights, chocolates and a love fern...ok, it's a love tree. I have to keep it alive until next year. Where should I put it? We're not celebrating Valentine's Day until Saturday, but I cooked Matt a nice dinner and we relaxed at home. Here are some things I'm loving on this week:

This 60s-themed hotel in Spain is not helping the wanderlust. My favorite part is the whole main floor.

Things everyone feels on the internet.

If you can't get to Spain, here are 44 midwest restorts. 7, 8 + 17 look pretty great.

Someone said this to me once and I almost fell over.

Top 10 Kristin Wiig sketches. Garth and Kat had me snorting.

Friday Friday

Fridays are blessings from Heaven. I feel bad for Mondays, though. They can't help that they're right after the weekend. Anywhey.........

Last night I made Matt his favorite dinner (steak + onions, bread, asparagus, cream soda + pecan pie) and we ate it on the couch while watching Comedy Thursday. Dream. Come. True.

And I finally got to tell him about his birthday gift! I bought him and his friend Travis tickets to an MMA semi-finals fight in SLC. He's uhb-sessed with MMA and always talks about how he would be a fighter if he had the body and how he wants to go see the MGM ring in Las Vegas someday. Maybe next year. We have to have something to work up to! I have like 70 more years of presents to go. I can't blow it up on year one!

My family's birthday tradition is to celebrate each birthday for literally an entire week. My mom gets cray about birthdays and always makes us feel awesome for a whole week. So we're going pretty hard this weekend on the celebrations.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Here's the love:

10 great things about being single on Valentine's Day.

Please, can I have #2 + #9?

It's only been like...3 days, and I'm already having 30 Rock withdrawals. Here's 30 things you didn't know about Tina Fey to cheer us up.

This website makes me want to buy all the things. I would definitely get clambake and mango bango.

What a marvelous ring.

And this dress to go with it.

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday! I've had a doosie of a week at the museum. It's been fun but lots of work. Matt surprised me with a weekend in a cabin down in Springdale (the small small town righ outside Zion) with his brother's little family. We got in last night and ate steaks by a fire and fell asleep on air mattresses to Parks and Rec. The cabin is under construction, but it's modern and full of windows, so we are basically luxury camping. It's pretty fun and just what I needed. The only plan for today is to breathe in fresh air, hold that baby for as long as possible, take a nap, and have a bath in the whirlpool tub overlooking a river. Here are the links:

This family lived in the backwoods of Siberia for four decades without seeing another person. The story of how they lived.

An inspiring quote about getting through winter.


Um...it's about time for Amy Poehler to write a book. 


An open letter to the fat girl at hot yoga. (I loved it!)

This girl went all out for her Disney wedding. What do you guys think? Cute or weird?how they lived.

Friday Favorites

Shout out to my oldest brother, Brian! It's his birthday today. And you know what? I love him more every year.

What are you doing this weekend? We are putting up a huge show at the museum, so I'll be working. I'll probably try to squeeze in a date and a family trip to the temple, too. Here's some link love:


For my curly girls: how to preserve that precious blow out!

Jason Wu's sketch for Michelle Obama's inauguration gown.

9 healthy baking substitutes. Interesting!

Lake house pictures that make me want to go to there.

An interesting + unexpected way to organize jewelry.



Plus three posts you may have missed:

How to be an introvert with an extrovert's job

The perks of being an introvert

What no one tells you about being engaged

Friday Favorites:

Welcome to the weekend! Hopefully your boobs will thank you at least once for not taking them to boob jail this weekend (name that show). I am excited because my Favorite Things Party is tomorow! I'll have an update on that soon enough. I'm also working on some exciting life changes that could be a big deal, so you know I'm gonna be all about the pro/con lists this weekend. Here's the link roundup!

31 unexpected street views found on Google maps

The 20 most beautiful children's books of all time

Being a teacher means making your own lunch on the daily. I couldn't find a cute lunch bag that fit my needs, until I found this shop on Etsy. Now I have two bags in rotation that make me happy to carry around my lunch all day.

An unexpected art class for teens in Park City, Utah (If I could take this, I would).

Plus, three posts you may have missed:


On being a champion of truth

How to staycation

What every single girl needs to hear

Friday Favorites

This drawing is appropriately titled "That January Feeling". I've been feeling like this all.month.long.

What are you doing this weekend? One of my Christmas gifts from Matt was a girl's day with Jeannette. She drove down from SLC to escape Winter Storm Gandalf (that's what Matt is calling it) and we've been having Ghetto Thursday. What is Ghetto Thursday, you ask? PJs all day. Simultaneous internet time in bed. Yummy comfort food. Homemade boba. Project Runway, Snooki + JWOWW + Double Divas. Best ever.

And then we're having girl's day tomorrow! Massages, lunch and shopping, courtesy of Matt. He even scheduled a day with Jeannette before he told me about it. It couldn't have come at a better time, because this week has been about 12 years too long. My whole body hurts from getting back into teaching (standing all day, driving all day, getting up early), so I'm pretty pumped! Points to that wonderful husband of mine. Time for Friday Favorites! 

A foolproof scientific way to get on The Price is Right.

If you're like me, you buy food and it goes bad before you can eat it. Here's a list of 31 groceries you can freeze to save make your groceries last longer.

I got hooked on boba in California, and haven't found a great place to get it here in Utah. Then I found this recipe to make boba tea at home. Jeannette and I made it and it was so good! 

Man. Sometimes it feels like only bad things are happening in the world. A list 26 things that restored our faith in humanity this year, to balance that list out.

I have definitely already watched all of season 3 of DA. Don't worry, I won't tell what happened, because I hate spoilers. But if you want to have a viewing party, here are some Downton Abbey party printables. You're welcome. Please invite me. 

Friday Favorites

It's finally Friday! Raise your hand if you're having a hard time transitioning from vacation to the real world! I know I am... Time for Friday Favorites!

This picture of Woody and Tom Hanks melts my heart, y'all.

If you're a die-hard Parks and Recreation fan (AND a Pinterest fan) like me, you're going to love Tom's Rent-A-Swag board.

An old art school friend of mine is now a fancy dancy graphic designer in New York. She just helped design this site, Live in the Grey, a website dedicated to helping people do what they love and love what they do.

Another art school friend (who is also, coincidentally, a graphic designer) posted this article she wrote on how to find your creative muse. Not just for graphic designers, my friends. 

I like the idea of having a travel wall where you can see all the places you've been. I've been to the Bahamas, Mexico, Italy, France, Canada and a few states in the US. Where have you been? This would probably inspire me to travel more so I could fill up my wall!

Speaking of travel, here's a free printable of a map of the USA.

Man I am already counting down the days to summer since the weather in Provo has been in the NEGATIVES. Who even does that? Come on, weather. You are drunk. Get it together. This pool disguised as a pond, with a TRAMPOLINE for a diving board sounds like my idea of a good time!

I am loving this wedding, especially the cake.

Have a great weekend!

End of the World Favorites

Happy End of the World! We are safe and sound in California. It's been a great 14 hours so far, and no Zombie Apocalypse! Here are a few of my favorite things this week:

Look at this octopus!

Paint your own matryoshka dolls?!?!?!?!?!

Super fun wrapping ideas for kids presents.

A gift that anyone would love to open.

72 years of Batman logos on a single poster.

If the Apocalypse actually does come today, I hope that I am holding this when it happens.

Oh my gosh, look at this print!

My friend told me she was attending an End of the World Party. What does an EOTWP look like, you ask? I guess people bring their favorite food and do fun stuff that would look cool if you were found dead...that's actually a guess. They probably just played Wii or something. Either way, FUN. What are you doing for the End of the World????? (I'll probably spend it trying to make my nephew love me more than my husband, and eating bacon.)

Friday Favorites

It's Friday! I have been at the museum all week (usually we're in schools teaching, but my co-worker is in EUROPE for a month, so schools are out). It's nice to have a teaching break! For more on what I do at work, go here. This week we got to see lots of loved ones before we go off to California for Christmas. We made gingerbread houses, had FHE together, and even visited a little one in the hospital :( Luckily, she's doing better and will hopefully come home tomorrow. 

I'm super excited because my BFFL is coming down to have a ladies night with me tonight! Who even knows what we're going to do. Last time she came down, we ate dinner at home while Matt played video games and sat in my bed on our computers for an hour, then went to bed. And it was awesome, because we have the kind of relationship where we have an awesome time, every time, no matter what we do. This time we might go out and do something festive. I'll keep you updated.

Time for Friday Favorites! 

I'm re-writing a lesson I did while student teaching on barriers. I found this video about El Bocho + CNN's Berlin Wall Tape Art Project  for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The things people come up with continue to amaze me. Watch it...it's pretty cool. 

Do you guys know about Flash Mobs? A group of people get together and rehearse a dance, then meet up in a very public place to perform it as a surprise for strangers. I'm going to admit that this one made me cry (but then again, everything makes me cry). I just love the idea of strangers getting together to make other people smile! The world needs more things like this. 

This list of unexplainable GIFS had me crying laughter.

ps. The first time I tried having a civilized, decent public forum on Facebook about a hot button issue, it blew up in my face. Good to know! Turns out I can't take the heat.

Friday Favorites: Website Edition

This week's Friday Favorites are dedicated to my favorite websites. These are the sites I go to all the time to feel awesome about life.

Single? Ever been single? Go here. It won't disappoint.

Did you know that Zooey Deschanel teamed up with her two best friends to create a website dedicated to all things woman? Some of the posts are deep, others dumb, some funny...all awesome.

This is my favorite blog right now. Joanna has been a writer for various high-profile magazines and has an adorable toddler. She lives in New York and writes about a lot of things, including NYC, motherhood, travel, products she loves, gift guides, and things that make her happy.

Need a pick-me-up? Even if you don't like cats, five seconds on this website will cheer you up, guaranteed.

This guy wrote 1000 posts about 1000 Awesome Things in life. It makes me so happy to be alive.

This site gets me laughing harder than anything else in the wehrld. Oh, memes.

Everything you would ever want in a party + lifestyle blog.

And, a post about being pretty, or the lack thereof.

What's your favorite go-to cheer-up website?

Friday Favorites

It's Friday! Why is Monday so close to Friday, when Friday is so far from Monday?

Our best friends got married to each other this weekend! Other than that, we have spent the entire week detoxing from Thanksgiving. We have been hitting the gym way more than usual (easy, when the usual is never lately), cooking healthy meals, and overdosing on all things Christmas. This weekend we're going to see the lights at Temple Square (I'm a sucker for twinkle lights) and doing a temple session. Lesbehonest, a good portion of this weekend will also be spent on my rear.

Here are some of my favorite things this week:

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday! We are down in Arizona with Matt's family, riling up children like nobody's business and eating way too much food. This is my first holiday as an official spouse, and I'm having a great time! It helps to know your husband's family four years before you're married. No nerves, just fun. There are almost 30 people under one roof, which I love! And we went hiking after Thanksgiving lunch (a first, but it definitely makes room for Thanksgiving dinner). 

We were planning on driving up today to be in our best friends' wedding, but we have had some car trouble. Getting a car repaired on Black Friday looks like it's going to be a daunting task, so we will be staying here for a couple more days instead of driving back up. We are sad to miss our friends' wedding! But at least we get a few more days of family time. 

You guys know I have been all up in Christmas's business since Halloween ended. I still have a few more gift guides scheduled, but today is devoted to things I love. I'm channeling my favey faves, Oprah, and her favorite things. Right now I'm loving on bold pops of red, cuddling weather, and simple decorations. Here you go! 

The art of lighting a Christmas tree.

Have you heard of the sound wave bracelet? You record yourself saying something, send it to the company, and they make a bracelet, representing the sound wave of it.

This website lets you upload any picture and turn it into a coloring page. I wish I could still get away with doing this in church.

I don't know why, but I don't crave baked goods like most people I know. This sounds like the perfect holiday treat to me!

It's almost time to start the official countdown to Christmas! This website has 34 ways to make an advent calendar.