12 on the 12th--January 2018

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1. Our fridge ephemera right now.
2. I worked 7-11 for Angie and got to enjoy Popcorn Friday at work.
3. Michelle's house for Creative Friday.
4. I put together a bunch of photo cards.
5. I took apart my new set of letter board letters.
6. Michelle and I went over accountability goals for the week.
7. Mailing the cards we wrote.
8. I'm still grateful for and loving my new car.
9. Ferris enjoying dinner.
10. Ice cream and Netflix are always a good idea.
11. Blissfully home alone while Randy is out of town and Whitney is at work.
12. What I'm reading.

12 on the 12th--August Edition

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1. Peep and Junie spent the morning wrestling and being cute on my bedroom floor.
2. Ibuprofen has been my best friend for the past few weeks as I've been having weird neck/shoulder/arm pain.
3. Whitney putting away the movies and games from our trip to Star Valley, Wyoming.
4. We had A LOT of laundry from our trip and from Landon's double football practices.
5. This is a common sight these days...Landon, post football practice, hanging out playing Clash of Clans on the ipad without a shirt and with this funny hat.
6. On my way to Michelle's house for Creative Friday. My bag of of craft supplies, big drinks for us (Coke Zero with Cherry for her, ice water for me), my purse with books to loan her, and my phone with the audible screen up so I can listen to my book while I drive.
7. I can't get enough postage lately and have been making cards with international stamps I buy on ebay.
8. I had to leave Creative Friday for a quick visit to the chiropractor for my neck...he beat me up with the treatment this time.
9. Iceberg is near the chiropractor so I just had to get shakes for us (Nutella for Michelle, Cake batter for me).
10. The awesome book I'm listening to whenever I can (which is a lot).
11. I made lots of photo cards and wrote several thank you notes.
12. I started this month's book club selection.

Creative Friday--Texas Visitor Edition

Our beautiful blogging friend Rebekah was in town from Texas and was available to join us for Creative Friday for the 2nd time! We were so excited our schedules jived!

It was Cafe Rio tostadas all around, but Rebekah opted for ice water instead of a drink drink.

I've actually been stamping a little bit lately since I realized I was out of birthday and wedding cards, what the?

Rebekah asked Michelle to help her knit something more than a square or rectangle.

My mom tried to teach me to knit a long time ago, but I'm far too impatient for that and watching Michelle and Rebekah try to figure things out confirmed my feelings.

Creative Friday--Christmas Edition

Landon and I went to Michelle's house for Creative Friday on December 27th. Landon hadn't been over there in months, so it was nice to go together again. We took this photo at a stoplight and the glare makes it look like I have blue teeth!

I splurged and got Los Hermanos take out for our lunch!

These lovely homemade candlesticks from Jessie's husband Timm were on Michelle's table instead of the green apples.

It was very exciting to be receiving lovely gifts from both Michelle and her mom! 

Michelle gave me this cute and comfy pajamas (which I'm wearning now as I type this) and an awesome kit with notebook paper gift bags, matching Washi tape, baker's twine and tags! I love it!! Michelle's mom Susan gave me some awesome notebook paper gift tags, Christmas napkins, alphabet masking tape (very cool) and a decorative bird nesting on shredded book pages. It was delightful! (Sadly I forgot my real camera so these are all photos from my phone and aren't great.)

These are the gifts I gave Michelle.

A gift certificate for a pedicure, some cloud socks and a bag of Cadbury Eggs.

And the world's cutest door mat! She had a similar one on her Amazon Wish List but it was no longer available and this was almost exactly like it. It's painfully cute really, especially with her turquoise door.

The boys played games in the family room and sound like men now, which is weird.

Michelle wrote thank you notes and I cut out a ton of tags I'd had printed...I will be prepared for next Christmas' tag needs for sure.

Pleasing no? These are all designs I downloaded from Pinterest for free.

The boys ended up coming over to the table to work on a puzzle Michelle had started the day before.

Max was home from BYU for Christmas Break!

Landon and Lucas exchanged presents...earbuds for Landon and a Cold Stone gift card for Lucas.

 Lando's card to Lucas.

I wrote 8 thank you notes.

Lucas ended up leaving to go out with friends because we thought we would be going home soon, but we ended up staying another 3 hours because we got sucked into the puzzle!

We finished it (mostly they did, but I did a bit at the end).

**Do you enjoy cute gift tags?

Do you have a cute Welcome mat?

Do you enjoy puzzles?**

Creative Friday--It's Still Happening Edition

After missing two weeks of Creative Fridays because of my California trip and then Thanksgiving Break we were happy to get together again. We haven't been taking self-portraits because they seem to be getting increasingly disappointing, but I insisted we do it because they're historically significant and I know we'll be sad later if we stop.

I mixed things up by bringing DP Cheesesteaks for lunch...so good.

We spent the majority of our day cutting out Christmas Tags we'd downloaded and printed from Pinterest.

Aren't they cute?! I'm planning to gift a bunch of them to my Secret Pal next week.

I also put together little treat bags for our primary substitute teacher thank yous.

This Christmas music book on Michelle's piano looked rather homey and festive.

Creative Friday--2 for the Price of One

For our September 20th activity we originally planned to go to Sundance to ride the ski lift and see the Fall colors, but after going on outings for 3 weeks in a row we had a hankering to stay in.

I picked up some Cafe Rio and drinks and we had a long, leisurely lunch and life catch-up; it takes us about 40 minutes to eat all of that.

We both wrote several notes...I'm loving these colorful cards Michelle gave me for my birthday.

Eva came home from school and was instantly bored (how can this be?!).

That girl has some serious attitude.

Michelle made my new favorite treat, Paula Deen's Butter Bars.

Servings: 6 to 8 servings
Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 40 min
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients 

Cake:
1 18 1/4-ounce package yellow cake mix
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted
Filling:
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 16-ounce box powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer.  Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat together. 
Next, add the powdered sugar and mix well.  Spread over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes.  Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

These are sinfully delicious, easy to make (I've made them twice) and make your house smell like heaven!

For our September 26th gathering we went to DP Cheesesteaks for lunch, then to TJ Maxx and Hobby Lobby.

Michelle embraced the peppers!

 It is so unusual for me to be shopping for fabric that Michelle insisted on taking this picture. I was rather embarrassed to be doing so, but have now decided that I should always carry large bolts of fabric in front of me so I can hide my gut and chins!

I wanted to make some fabric coasters like the ones Michelle gave me a couple years ago. It makes perfect sense that coasters would be fabric. I thought these would make for a fun, little gift for my co-workers who are always battling condensation from their beverages.

There were so many cute fabric choices, but ultimately I went with basic black and white.

These are the fun items I bought at TJ Maxx. I'm always looking for cute gifts for my Secret Pal and I always find good things there. Of course I find stuff for me too.

I put Washi Tape on my keys (as seen on Pinterest) and am delighted with the result even though it's not as cute as the one I saw online.

Michelle printed some faux library cards for me to use for bookmarks (also for my co-workers)...the girl has skills.

I wrote a couple notes and put together a little good mail package.

I snapped this while Michelle was lost in thought while on the phone.

Creative Friday--Another Field Trip Edition

For last week's Creative Friday Michelle and I took a nod from blogging friend Natalie's Instagram post showing her at the Springville Art Museum; but of course that meant going to lunch at The Art City Trolley in town as well (both are rare treats for us).

 The restaurant is pretty cute.

The food is excellent!

Even the receipts are cute!

The museum itself is a very cool building.

Our self-portrait.

We both like to take pictures of flowers and were quite smitten by these anemones is various stages of bloom on the way into the museum.

I always like catching bees in action.

The windows inside the museum are beautiful too.

These paintings were so interesting, humorous, and full of texture.

This one cracked me up because the little boy is saying, "broth" and so is the dog and then up above (not in this picture) there is a painted picture in the scene with people saying broth as well.

This one was amusing to us because the woman is saying, "I love you most of the time" and the man is saying, "I love you sometimes too."

Our favorite part of the museum may have been having the outdoor sculpture garden all to ourselves on a perfectly cool, breezy day. We sat on the two closest chairs and savored the non-sweatyness of it. It's no small thing that we both share temperature woes and understand the euphoria of a cool day.

There was another exhibit of gorgeous floral paintings that we were quite smitten with. The painter (who is a local artist) happened to be at the museum that day and talked to us about her process a bit.

On the way home we stopped at Iceberg again (like last week) for shakes. Michelle got the Nutella shake again (which she said is fantstic) and I got a Caramel Praline shake. It was a hugely successful outing on all fronts!