Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Truth Tuesday


  • Today is National Cat Day, so I feel the need to give a shout out to the greatest feline that ever lived . . . Luna. I know I can be obsessive about my cat and it's a little lot ridiculous, but if you met Luna then you would understand. She's my little fur ball friend. She cuddles me when I'm sad, brings her toys to me when she wants to play fetch, and she loves going on car rides and sticking her head out the window. She's the best. 

  • BWell and I watched "Matilda" last night. I forgot how epic that movie was. It came out when I was about six or so and I remember watching it all the time. I even went through a period of time where I was determined to be Matilda. When I got bored at school, I would put my pencil on my desk, focus really hard, and try to move the pencil with my eyes. In case you're wondering, I never developed my magical powers. Perhaps one day.

  • Speaking of "Matilda", can I just say that Roald Dahl was a genius? Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The BFG, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, The Witches . . . all some of my childhood favorites. That guy had one creative mind. 

  • It always bothers me when people constantly complain about the weather. Yes, you live in Utah. Yes, it's going to snow. Get over it or move to Arizona. 

  • I love smooth yogurt but if it has chunks of fruit in it, it makes me gag. 



  • I wish I could have 10 Halloween costumes. 

  • I have an addiction. I want to buy so many cute throw pillows that I can't even see my couches or bed underneath them. 

  • My brother is doing just swell on his mission. He sent me an email saying there is a girl in the ward who reminds him of me. Now I want to ask him if he has a crush on her just to make things awkward. 

  • I think Arctic Circle's sweet potato fries are my new comfort food. 

  • A kid on the school bus punched my little sister in the mouth and I feel the need to hunt him down and steal his lunch money.

XO Kels

Monday, October 28, 2013

Painting the Town (or at least all my furniture)

After painting just about every room in our house upon moving in, you'd think I would never want to pick up a paint brush ever again. However, I can't seem to stop finding things I want to paint.

The first target was our coffee table. I originally picked it up at a secondhand store shortly after Brian and I got married. It needed some TLC but I fell in love with it because of the glass top. After cleaning it up a bit, I quickly put a collage of pictures under the glass with the thought that I would get around to painting it.

Here are some "before" pictures:




 Well, two years later and I finally got some paint on it. I painted it a bright teal color and I wanted it to have a worn antique look. I love how it turned out. I also mixed up my photos under the glass and instead of doing a huge collage of pictures, I created a backdrop out of a map from our honeymoon with scrapbook paper and added photos sporadically across it.

The "after" pictures:



My next painting project was the dining room chairs. Years ago, I found an idea in a magazine of painting each chair a different color. I could never get the idea out of my head and was convinced I would do it someday. I am a person who loves color. Brian likes color too, but he's not as eccentric as I am, which is probably good. I need to give a giant shout out to my husband because through all my crazy projects and ideas, he never says flat out no. He always gives me a chance and says we can at least try whatever weird idea I'm obsessing over at the moment. Just with painting the house, he was so awesome about picking out colors. I need to pat myself on the back too, because I compromised by letting us paint a lot more walls white than I would have liked. But Brian was so willing to try colors I suggested and he even got a little crazy himself when he suggested we paint the ceiling of our living room yellow (which we did and it is the most cheerful ceiling you'll ever see). Anyway, when I originally dropped the idea of bright colored chairs on Brian, I think he about had an anxiety attack.

"Is it going to feel like we're eating at Cafe Rio every night?"

I couldn't promise him anything, but I solemnly swore I would never serve him dinner in a tin pan.

So Brian jumped on the colorful-mismatched-chair bandwagon and we picked out colors together. When the time came to get my hands dirty with the sanding and painting, I about chickened out. You see, there was no pressure with the coffee table I had painted. It was secondhand and I had picked it up for less than $20. These chairs were a different story. The dining room in our bungalow called for a nice long table, so we purchased a new table after our move via KSL. While we got a spanking deal on the table and chairs, it still cost us a lot more than anything you would find at the DI. These chairs were nice chairs . . . and I was going to potentially ruin them.

The "seconds before I started painting" picture:



Well, I swallowed my fear and there was no looking back. We started out sanding and painting the chairs, but after my fingertips were about bloody only one chair later, we decided to try using spray paint! It worked like magic and made the job a lot faster. I am so glad I decided to be brave, because the chairs look awesome. I feel like they especially work because we painted the walls and ceiling in the dining room white, so the chairs add some unexpected color. They also look very vibrant against the hardwood floors. I honestly can't see how I could ever sit down and eat a meal and not feel happy with all that bright color surrounding me.

The "after" pictures:

 

I feel like I should add, those white things hanging from the ceiling in the above picture are supposed to be ghosts. They'll come down after Halloween. Also, isn't my blue pumpkin a cutie?  

Well, those are some of the latest bungalow projects and I'm not done painting yet. I'm busting out the brushes again this week. One project even involves some chalkboard paint. Sorry if my blog turns into "all Kelsey ever talks about is her dumb old house". I just sort of love it. Living in this wonderful place has given me a fresh way of seeing things and experiencing things. I feel like I've reached this new level of creativity and I just never want the creative juices to run out.


Sunday, October 27, 2013

Sunday Best: Indoors


 

dress: Modcloth, jeans: Buckle, boots: thrifted, necklace: Claire's 


We've had beautiful fall weather here in Northern Utah, but I had such a jam-packed week that I never got around to thinking about Sunday Best photos until it was dark outside.

However, a little darkness couldn't stop me. I took the awkward photo shoot indoors to the crappy lighting. But hey, at least I got to show off my awesome dining room chairs. We just finished painting them this week. Our bungalow is slowly coming together. It's fun to do a project here and a project there to make each room feel a bit more like home. Just wait for what I've got in store for those white walls behind me. More on the chair makeover in a post tomorrow.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Cafe Spooky

This past Tuesday was my last time doing Activity Days. Since we've moved to our new house, that also means it is time to move on to a new church ward. I wanted the girls to see where I would be living now, so we decided to have a Halloween dinner at the Weller bungalow. Last week, I went out for lunch with the other leaders and we planned the menu. We started getting pretty into it. We created menus and called our high-end restaurant "Cafe Spooky". Some of the things we came up with for food may have been over the top, but the girls loved it. That's what really matters, right?

I took such care in setting the table for them and I even let them use my new teacups I thrifted last week. They were all giggles and Luna enjoyed the extra attention she received from the little girls.

Our appetizers, created by the talented lady who is taking my spot as a leader, were "mini pumpkins" and "spooky ghosts" . . .


Then for the main course, we had bread sticks with Mac&Cheese. The Mac&Cheese was dyed green and we called it "fresh gopher guts". I made way too much Mac&Cheese. When I went to put it in a Tupperware to save, Brian disgustingly said, " I am NOT eating that." The gopher guts were too much for him to handle. There isn't a photo of the Mac&Cheese, so use your imagination, but I do have a photo of the bread sticks that we renamed "witch fingers" . . .


Then one of the other leaders made this adorable cake that we called "graveyard dirt" . . .



When the time came to go home, I gave all the girls a personal hand-written letter and told them goodbye. One of the girls was pretty confused.

"Why are you leaving?"

I then explained to her that Brian and I moved.

"Where did you move to?"

"The house we are standing in, silly."

Also, when I gave my short farewell speech, one girl rubbed my arm and sarcastically said, "There, there. Don't cry."

Those scoundrels.

I sure will miss my church calling and my sweet partner, Sami Jo. Both the women who were my partners while I served in Activity Days ended up being my best friends in the ward, which I'm so grateful for. I'll especially miss those sweet young gals who have influenced my life. I hope I influenced theirs in some way. Can I just adopt them? Sami, I want to adopt you too.  


Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Truth Tuesday


  • I should not be allowed to enter a dollar store unsupervised during Halloween . . . or any holiday for that matter. I went in searching for one thing and came out with a bag full of weird Halloween shenanigans. But it was only a dollar. I brought home a glow-in-the-dark skeleton, an ice tray with finger and bone shapes and Halloween stickers. I was also tempted to buy Halloween pencils and a Halloween snow globe, but I refrained. 

  • Today was my last time with my Activity Day girls (it's a church group thing). Technically, I already got released and they found a person to replace me . . . but everyone was nice and let me participate one last time since I have attachment issues. Everyone came to our new house and we had a Halloween dinner. We made green Mac&Cheese and called it gopher guts. Yeah, that happened.

  • Also, we are now going to our new church ward. Everyone is really nice and things are super organized. There are lots of old people who like to make jokes about how they're going to die any day now. One man told me to start having children because he wants more little kids in the ward . . . and that was about 10 seconds after we met. But all joking aside, everyone was so kind and welcoming. I think we are going to love this neighborhood.   

  • It will probably take me another month or two to memorize our new address. I am the worst ever with addresses. In rural Idaho we just don't really use them. Instead of giving addresses we say, "Turn left by the old tractor and it's the blue house with the goat in the yard." 

  • When I was little and I unwrapped presents, I would get super offended if anyone tried throwing the wrapping paper away. I liked to scatter it all around me (I was a super weird child). I feel like I'm being like that with the leaves falling off our trees and into our yard. Brian cleaned them up over the weekend and I was sort of upset. 

  • My biggest fear is dying. I hope I just die of old age in my sleep. I have no desire to go out with a bang. 

  • This morning, there was a spider in the bathtub and I washed it down the drain to its death. I feel really guilty now. 

  • My current favorite song we are playing on Utah's VFX is probably this one. I know it repeats itself a lot but don't judge me, it's catchy. I'll probably be sick of it in a few more days since as a deejay you hear the same songs over and overrrrrrrrr. Hey, I'm not complaining. My job rocks.  

Monday, October 21, 2013

Local Pumpkins are the Best Pumpkins

I figured I need to prove my middle-class, white girl status by posting about our trip to the pumpkin patch.


We went with our good friends, Richie and Lauren. We love Richie and Lauren but let's be honest, the real reason we invited them was so we could watch their baby Claire be ultra cute.


I don't, for the life of me, understand why anyone around here would buy their pumpkins at the nearest Walmart. I suppose it's for convenience sake. However, it's only a short drive to many local farms where they sell a plethora of pumpkins. Variety is much greater than what you get at a store in town and the prices are much kinder on the wallet, too.


We live in an agricultural area. Everyone should be buying from our local farmers. Handing our money to the owner of the pumpkin patch felt a lot better than running a debit card at a cash register. Plus, the pictures at the pumpkin patch turned out much cuter than they would have in front of Wally World.

Sorry I'm anti-Walmart (except I'm really not sorry).

Check out Richie and Lauren's blog here. They're both pretty witty and I think they need to post more often, if you ask me.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Sunday Best: Subject of All Mockery

sweater: Smith's, pants: ShopKo, combat boots: Shoe Carnival, levi jacket: Gap, scarf: Bohme

I am the baby of my work. Everyone is older than me. Being the baby means you become the butt of all jokes. I understand this. After all, I grew up in a home where I was the oldest and had the privilege of doing all the mocking. Now I guess it's my turn to be mocked. It's okay, I can take it. 

An easy thing for everyone to make fun of is the way I dress. I tend to wear what I think is cool, regardless of whether or not it is actually cool. 

I wore the above outfit on Tuesday and, you guessed it, I got made fun of. 

All our different radio stations are housed in the same building. Each station has big glass windows, so you can look in at those working in the station next to you. You can't talk but you can stare at each other . . . and do sign language if you both understand it. Anyway, I get to work and notice the deejay in the studio next to our newsroom is diving around the room very dramatically and shooting at me with his hands. He looked like an insane person. Then I walked down the hall and realized what was going on after another guy asked me, "Are you going on a big hunt?" 

Ohhhhh, they're making fun of my camouflage pants. 

Which makes no sense because another deejay wears camouflage shorts every other day. I never see them make fun of him. 

"Actually, I'm going to war," I replied dryly. 

What I don't understand is why no one made fun of my sweater. A bulldog wearing glasses, seriously? 

Just wait until they see what I wear to work tomorrow.  

I also want to add, we took these photos in our driveway. Isn't our driveway the cutest? I think so. 



Tuesday, October 15, 2013

The Tale of How I Saved a Kitten

I walked out of the studio late that night. The air was cool and a few stars were twinkling through the wisps of clouds. There wasn't much of a moon leaving the small parking lot at my work site very dark.

Ringing through the darkness, I could hear the very clear and very terrifying cries of a cat. Not just a cat, I could definitely tell it was a kitten. I could also tell it was scared . . . maybe even hurt.

I grew up in a home where we constantly loved animals. My mom would often bring home abandoned or hurt critters and nurse them back to health. It's a part of my mentality to always "help the helpless".

But I was so tired. It was almost 11 at night, I'd had a long day, and I was only wearing a hoodie, basketball shorts and slippers.

I could almost literally feel the weight of my shoulder angel and shoulder demon sitting on each shoulder blade, whispering things in my ears. I walked back and forth from my car toward the direction of the meowing several times before I finally let out a deep sigh and got in my car. I put my car in drive and pulled to the chain link fence. I then put the car in park and turned on my brights, letting the light flood the field on the other side of the fence. There in the field, was a stack of scrap metal and I instantly knew that was where the kitten was. Without much of a plan, I got out of my car and walked to the fence. I started saying things in a sing-song voice as I carefully scaled my way up the fence.

"It's okay. I'm coming, baby kitty."

"Keep meowing so I can find you."

I kept carrying on a conversation like this throughout the whole rescue mission, which is quite ridiculous since cats don't understand English. But every time I spoke, I got a response of high-pitched kitten squeaks.

Once I made it to the top of the fence, only snagging my mesh shorts one time, I jumped down to the ground. I continued speaking to the feline while I bent down to see if I could locate it in the metal. I took my cell phone out, using the dim light to look down in the cracks between the pile. I couldn't see anything. So that's when I nervously started to move the pieces of metal. It was my only option, really. Each scrap was over six feet long and a lot denser than I had hoped. I could lift one piece at a time and move it to a new location. Not only were the strips of metal heavy, but I also had to be extremely gentle so that none of the other pieces would slip as I lifted one piece out. The last thing I needed was to smash and kill a kitten while trying to save it. After moving close to 15 pieces of metal, there was still no kitten. I could still hear it desperately crying out. My arms felt like jello and I was so afraid of what I might find. What if it was badly injured? What if it attacked me or something? What if someone saw me in the field moving metal around and called the cops? After taking a moment to catch my breath, I continued to move pieces of metal. I kept trying to coax the kitten to come out but I started sounding much more desperate at this point. I got down to the very last piece of metal and before I lifted it, I let out a, "This kitten better be really cute."

I lifted the metal and the next thing I said was, "Oh, it's a mutant cat."



Curled up in a shivering little ball sat a grey puffy creature partly buried in the dirt. It turned its little head up to me and continued crying, its scared blue eyes looked clouded over. Its grey fur looked coarse and frizzy and was full of dirt clods. I bent down and scooped it up, holding it gingerly in the palm of my hand. The poor thing didn't seem to be injured but its belly was hard and bloated. I wondered when it had last eaten. I cooed comforting words and it started to calm down and immediately tried to suck on my hand, searching for sustenance.

Now I needed to get back over the fence.

I carefully slid the kitten through a gap at the bottom of the fence. I then climbed back over and then picked up the creature I had heroically (yes, heroically) rescued from a heaping pile of metal. I then drove home while the cat continued to cry as it dug its needle-like claws through my shorts and into my leg.

As I pulled up to our place, I prayed that Brian wouldn't be mad and I prayed even harder that Luna wouldn't be mad (Luna isn't too fond of other cats). The kitten continued its bloodcurdling screaming the entire walk to my front door. When I entered our living room, Brian had an alarmed look on his face.

"I rescued it. It was trapped under a pile of metal."

Brian immediately jumped up from the couch. "It's probably hungry. I'll go buy some kitten formula."

My heart immediately swelled with love because I knew I had married the right guy. A lot of guys would be annoyed, maybe even mad, had their wife brought home a starving, crying kitten in the middle of the night. But Brian has a big heart and he understands that his wife does too (and she's also a little crazy). Fifteen minutes later, he returned with a bottle and formula. I forgot about every single thing he'd done that day to annoy me as he mixed up a bottle for the abandoned kitten. Luna prowled around the room, ears flat and would occasionally hiss if she ever felt at all threatened by the living thing that was 10 times smaller than her. After finally getting the crying cat to suck the bottle, it didn't want to stop. If you're ever having a bad day, watch a kitten suck from a tiny bottle because it will melt your heart.


 It was the cutest thing. It wrapped its tiny paws around the bottle and smacked its lips when it was done eating. We then found a box and an old towel and created a temporary home for the fluff ball.

After three days of Luna being butt hurt and Brian and I taking turns bottle feeding the baby, we finally found a good home for it and I felt that my good deed for the month was done.

So we had quite the adventure rescuing a kitten. The biggest lesson I learned is that Luna might hate our future children. Oh well, she'll have to get over it.  

    

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Sunday Best: Count Kelsey

jacket: Forever 21, t-shirt: internet (can't remember the site, ha), pants: Kohl's, boots: TJ Maxx, earrings: Kohl's

One! Two! Three! Three weeks since last Sunday Best, muahahaha (lightning in the background). Obviously, if you don't know what that counting nonsense was, you haven't watched Sesame Street in a while.

So I've been slacking on Sunday Best posts. Let's get real, they're awkward. I feel awkward posing all sheepishly to take pictures of myself. I feel awkward posting them here and making myself look vain. But in all honesty, it's fun for me to look back through my Sunday Best posts and see how myself and my style have evolved.

I'm the furthest thing from a fashion blogger. Heck, I don't even feel like a blogger at all. But this space is mine to document and grow, and I'm cool with that.

Maybe in a few months time, I'll look back at this post and get a good laugh. "Look at me with my anti-Twilight t-shirt, pleather jacket, red lipstick, and pasty skin. I'm like a Bella-hating vampire."

Yes, I'll probably say something like that.

Just call me Count Kelsey. At least Halloween is this month, right?

Friday, October 4, 2013

Shuffle

It's nice to be sitting at my own computer at home. Not only that, but I'm facing a window and the tree in my yard is making me smile. The green leaves are starting to glow yellow with autumn. I'm beginning to feel at home in our new place. Things are still in boxes and it will be a long while until we are completely settled, but I have a bed to sleep in and I finally went grocery shopping so all is well.

The past week has been a whirlwind. My computer was packed up so I was unable to blog. I was so busy at work too that I wouldn't have had time to blog whether my computer was in a box or on a desk. I am also going out of town with my mom all of next week and I don't even want to think about the packing. The trip will be nice. Packing, not so much.

I'm looking forward to a weekend filled with catching up and relaxing. Conference Weekend is always a goody. Things will be even better if USU beats BYU tonight.

I've decided to do this new thang called "Shuffle". Since I am a radio deejay and all, I figure I should incorporate some more music into my blog. So, here's the deal. I put my iPod on shuffle. The first 10 songs to come up are the ones I share here. Although I deejay on a Top 40 station, my taste in music is very broad and random. Hope you find something below that makes you want to sing in the shower.


1. Almost Lover - Fine Frenzy

2. Mrs. Robinson - Simon and Garfunkel 

3. The Quiz - Hello Saferide 

4. Corona and Lime - Shwayze

5. Sweater Weather - The Neighbourhood

6. Love Is Blindness - Jack White

7. Typical - Tickle Me Pink

8. Angel - Aerosmith

9. Begin Again - Taylor Swift

10. Give Me Everything - Pitbull (feat. Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer

How was that for random? Well, gotta go dress in more layers and head off to the football game. Let's go, Aggies!