5 things I'm grateful for Sunday

Tonight I feel like it's real easy and a little difficult at the same time to come up with things I'm grateful for.  I miss Tony while he's been camping, but I've kept busy and thus haven't been too lonely.  I'm grateful for...well, here; let's just do this.

1. I'm grateful for time to myself, to both reconnect with myself and also to get things done.

2. I'm grateful for when my loved ones go away for a while, because I remember just how much I love them.

3. I'm grateful that I still get to go on movie-and-dinner dates with my Dad.

4. I'm grateful to have the bed to myself.

5. I'm grateful for embroidery floss.  (Really, it's just so pretty.)

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Well, that's all.  I've enjoyed my few days off of work and am anxious for my honey to return in two days.  Hope you're all doing well!

love,

kayla

Chill

Making necklaces while watching one of my favorite movies.

How are you spending your Saturday?

The Soft Fall

Needing some inspiration. 
(I recommend listening to "Song For A Winter's Night" by Gordon Lightfoot while viewing.)

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My Stories + The Music

Summertime hasn't meant a ton of TV for us - except for, you know, the Travel channel, the Discovery channel, and the History channel (which we've come to refer to as the "Aliens" channel, because that seems to be the explanation for most everything lately.)  With our favorite network shows all wrapped up for the summer, we watch more things like Pawn Stars, Mythbusters, and Man Vs. Food.  Which are all well and good shows, and we love them, but we've both found ourselves saying several times over the summer how we miss Bones, and we sigh with nostalgia whenever we listen to the Glee soundtracks on Tony's iPod or catch ourselves quoting the effortlessly-quotable Dan Stark.  "Que pasa your nombre, hombre?!"

Today, however, whilst eating my PB&J on the couch, I saw the commercials I love, that give me butterflies in my stomach.  The shows are returning.  You know; the good ones.

I hate to sound like such a TV junkie, but I really can't wait for Glee, House, Bones, and The Good Guys.  It actually might be one of my favorite parts about the non-Summer months (or, as I like to refer to them, the Dark Months.)

(In truth, I'm kinda looking forward to Autumn.  I'll miss the happy summertime, but gold-and-red leaves and crisp sweater-weather are looking pretty good too.)

In other news, and while we're (sort of) on the topic of the Deschanels, I went with a friend last night to one of the free annual Summer concerts in my city where we saw She & Him.

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I don't know much of their music, but I think Zooey is adorable and it was good fun to see her bouncing around on stage.  The music was good too.  It had been a while since I've gone to a concert, one where I let myself really enjoy it.  I elbowed my way into the crowd, pressed on all sides by perfect strangers, and felt the energy.  It's time like those that I'm grateful to be alone while the boy is off playing.  I got to do exactly what I wanted, stay out as late as I liked (which turns out to be no later than 11) and not worry about what someone else wanted to do.
Not that I'm not dying for him to come back.

Do you like going to shows?  And are you also completely jealous of Zooey's adorable style?

love,
kayla

Har-ray!

via WeHeartIt

Today I am happy because:

• I got out of the house, even though it took me until 2 pm
• I ate lunch, even if it was just a PB&J
• I got my mom a  b-day present
• I handed out resumes and filled out applications
• I finally picked up supplies for a new project I've been dying to begin
• I'm narrowing down on a cute name for the "shop"
• I managed to clear my head just by walking the mall and window shopping
• I even got complimented on my outfit (I'd post a picture of the sweet awesomeness, but Tony took the camera camping with him, so I guess you'll just never know.)

Yup, I'm just incredibly impressive.  I know.

Now I'm gonna hunker down with a movie and work on the aforesaid project for a few hours, then later tonight I'm off to my Mama's to tag along on a surprise birthday adventure.  I don't think she reads this, but just in case: Mom, I'm just kidding.  There's no surprise.

What are you up to today?
love,
kayla

'Cheerin Up' Music

What do you listen to when you need to cheer up? 

For me, The Proclaimers do it every time.


(gives me chills)

 
This song's a classic, of course, but I love their whole "Sunshine on Leith" album.

Late Night Emo Rants

Burned through the last half of this book tonight:

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Cried and felt intensely about it (maybe (probably) influenced by the death of my kitty today.)

Feeling an urge to take up the cello.  Really wishing we had a piano right now - and that we didn't have any shared walls.  Thirsty for some music, I'm listening to this powerfully beautiful lady:

Cat Power

I downloaded a Live Sessions release from iTunes and it's exactly what I needed tonight.  Listening to her makes me wish I were bluesy and played guitar and went on tour.

This is slightly unrelated.  I'm just gonna say it.  I've been fiercely needing some friendship lately.  The real kind.  Good girl talk, good deep talks, unspoken understanding and a different kind of love than the beautiful kind I share with my husband.  Since marriage all the friends I had have faded away.  I don't know if it's my fault or theirs - likely both.  Maybe neither.  I'm forgetting how to relate to people, forgetting what is socially normal and knowing I'm the one who's crippled.

I haven't wanted to rant about that anywhere to anyone for fear of sounding needy and knowing it just sounds horrible anyway.  People want life to be positive.  Sometimes I am not positive.

Just needed a little outlet, so thanks for letting me do that.  I promise not to let it happen too much.

Good night,

kayla

5 things I'm grateful for Sunday: Monday Edition

Dude.  Sorry for the major blog neglect going on around here.  To tell the truth, "it" just hasn't been in me the last little while.  My days have consisted of an intense feeling of not wanting to do anything.  Well, anything where I have to think and perform.  There's been lots of taking the pup to the dog park and sitting on the couch with the boyface and playing Bejeweled Blitz (yuck).  With fingers crossed, though, I may be coming out of the slump.  Friday I began a new spur-of-the-moment knitting project, and I have some new ideas, and I put one of these (no, that's not me) in my hair for the first time. 

Last night I babysat a kid in my class and his baby brother for 5 hours, which was the starting point for a very busy week.  Tonight I'm going visiting teaching (finally!), Wednesday I say farewell to my love for 6 days (he's going camping) and then I'm off to help out a friend, Thursday night there's an annual Salmon Fry in my neighborhood, Friday is Stake Temple Night, and I'm also hoping to take Thursday and Friday off of work to go get my hair cut (YAY!) and then go job hunting.  And then, the weekend.  I.  Love.  Weekends.

So there's the much-overdue mini update on me.  I hope to not get in the habit of ignoring blogland because I truly do love it.  Sometimes we just have our funks.

Anyway, let's return to our regularly scheduled program.  :)
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5 THINGS I'M GRATEFUL FOR SUNDAY: MONDAY EDITION


1. Getting new clothes once in a while.

2. Sunday dinners with the 'rents.

3. Being able to easily attain necessities like milk and toilet paper when we run out.

4. Fresh-baked anything.

5. Not having kids yet.  :)


Happy Monday, y'all.
love,
kayla

Stuff

Getting through the days

Glad the weekend is here

Excited for Craft Lake City tomorrow

Lovin' the pupcake

Love

I like being home and don't want to spend tons of time on the computer, so just a shortie tonight.

Lovin' this post from My Milk Toof tonight.  So true.  Let's all try to step back and see some bigger pictures, and give ourselves some credit for the masterpiece we're making with all our smaller efforts.

Sleep tight, everyone.
love,
kayla

5 things I'm grateful for Sunday

1. Having a big strong man with the willingness and know-how to do things for us and our home, like build fences.

2. Our home, and our yard.  Both are small, but we love them.

3. Our simple lifestyle.

4. The love of family.

5. Our new little pup.

Thanks for the name suggestions, but we came up with one on our own.  We've decided to call her Maya, which is Sanskrit for "Illusion".  She's a very mellow, quiet pup, but brimming with sweetness and cuddles, and I felt the name was delicate enough for her.  Fun fact - Maya is also one of the names for the mother of Siddartha Guatama, aka Buddha.

(Crissy, I think Gertrude would have been a lovely name.  Tony is a different animal, however, when it comes to names. :))

Our New Addition

We've been talking about it for a while, but had been planning to wait until we reached our 6 month mark, and also until we had put in a proper gate in our yard.  The plans jumped the gun today, though, because there is no such thing as going to the Humane Society just to "look".

Meet...um, the puppy.  She doesn't have a name yet.  She's 8-ish months old, and a right ol' mutt.  We'd talked about getting a pitbull, or a lab, or (in my dreams) a greyhound or great dane.  Our home is small, though, and in the end this little beauty won our hearts.  The kind ladies at the shelter said she's some kind of border collie, or heeler, or Australian cattle dog mix.  Who knows.  We think she's pretty.

The last half of today was spent hurriedly putting in fence posts, and tomorrow will bring the actual fence and gate.  If you have any good names floating around in your name-bank, let us know.  Right now we just call her Good Girl.

<3

Delectable Plum Pie

Thanks to some righteous summer rainstorms last night and few drizzles this afternoon,  the heat was turned down some over the Salt Lake valley, which means I have energy for a blog post.

I like to dabble in baking.  Baking to me is very satisfying.  The ingredients, the process,  the product - sometimes even more so the process than the product.  I revel in the feeling of making things, and I especially like the feeling of doing it all from scratch as much as possible.  I've also been reading a lot of the Anne of Green Gables series, which includes a lot of good old-fashioned homey goodness, like baking.  So I just couldn't resist myself when I saw the plums at the grocery store. 

I'm not usually a plum person.  Growing up we had a teeny plum tree in our yard that produced very small, very sour plums (that we ate all the time anyway).   But I've always loved the idea of plums.  I don't know, I just like that they exist.  They always sound so yummy when other people talk about them.  Especially when paired with baking.  I've actually been longing to make something using plums ever since I saw Amelie, where she makes her "famous plum cake" or whatever it was.

I found a recipe for plum pie, as well as one for a basic flaky pie crust, and threw it all together one night.  It was my first pie.  Pies have always scared me off because they seemed so unattainable.  I was sure I could never produce a satisfactory crust and honestly, I've never been a real lover of pie.  Pumpkin pie, sure, and even peach or apple pie when the occasion presents itself.  But I've never gone out of my way to eat pie.  Imagine my surprise when I found myself thoroughly enjoying the process of making one.  I felt connected to bakers of a past era, where people made pies before breakfast - and then made breakfast.  (And then knit something, embroidered something, gardened, scrubbed their floors and then made dinner, and not only for special occasions.) 

Anyway, this pie was amazing.  I have a newfound love for plums, pie, and have rekindled my baking mojo.  Also, I'm proud to have a new go-to recipe for when I have to bring a desert to a family function or what-not.  It was surprisingly easy, and the crust came out pleasantly flaky, which is what I presume is a defining factor for good pie crust.

In the oven right now?  Apricot pie.  :)

Monday Confessions

Taken with Lympie.

One pair of contacts lasts me probably around 3 months.  Yes, I know it's bad for my eyes.

I rarely find the time for breakfast.

I know the tops of my kitchen cabinets are dusty and gross, but I really don't want to clean them.

I call myself a fantasy nerd, but I've never read Lord of the Rings.

A few weeks ago I stopped to check out a street craft fair in my city, and almost immediately got back in my car and left because I was too shy to talk to anyone.

I desperately want to make stuff and sell it on Etsy or elsewhere, but the one thing that stops me - even above not really having a product yet - is not being able to decide on a name for the shop.

  I worry constantly, and have to forcibly stop myself from daydreaming terrible things.

When I clean the lint trap in the dryer, I blow  the leftover lint dust on top of the dryer into the crack between it and the wall.  My mother would kill me.

My senior year of highschool I once skipped an entire day of school to stay home and play Knights of the Old Republic in my underwear.

I often wear the same shirt several days in a row.

I can't stand to not have my toenails painted.

I love being married, but sometimes I feel like I want to leave this sleepover and go back home.  But I don't feel that way for long, because I really do love being married.

When I was little and went on camping trips with my dad - mostly to places like Moab or Zions National park - I would pretend I was an indian girl and lead my dad to all kinds of magical places.

I'm extremely sentimental.  When my first car finally died and we had to surrender it to the junk yard, I cried.  I still have dreams about that car.  I also save every letter or card I get, and refuse to throw out the giant teddy bear Tony got me when we were dating, even though it takes up millions of space.

I made whipped cream by hand because goshdarnit if women before could do it without electric mixers, I can too.

Everything in my house would be homemade if I knew how.

I am heavily influenced by my environment.  If I'm around loud people, I want to be loud.  If I'm around quiet people, I want to be quiet.  If I hung around gangsters I'd probably want to join a gang.

The first CD I ever bought was "Pieces of You" by Jewel.

I've never stayed at a job longer than 1 year.

I have a shower routine that was planned, practiced, reworked, fine-tuned, and is under constant scrutiny by myself, no matter how it shames the free-spirit in me to say it.

Taken from Rachel's blog.  Join in!

5 things I'm grateful for Sunday

Is it Sunday again already??

1. Summer rain.

2. Clean bathrooms.

3. Food in the pantry.

4. Anne Shirley.

5. Being loved.

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I know I've been terrible at updating this week.  Sorry!  What with the heat and cameras dying and sudden uprisings of allergies,  I just haven't felt very productive.  I do have some exciting new to share - well, exciting to me.  (Okay, it's not all that exciting.  Guys, it's baking related, come on.)  Expect it tomorrow probably.  Now it's bedtime.  Tony's been in bed for like 3 hours already, so I'm already late for that train.
G'night!
kayla