I still have paint under my fingernails...

    We have been painting our new apartment like crazy these last two weeks. We started with the cabinets in our bedroom, which were an odd combination of olive green, orange and yellow. They are now white, as is the previously mauve and green stairwell leading to our patio and garage. Both of those projects took three days, each! It seemed like we would be knee deep in white paint forever. But then, we saw the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

    Now the good stuff starts! We decided on chevron stripes for the spare room, which will be my office. Our green plaid couch will go in here and I thought a coral color would look perfect on the wall! So, after looking at several tutorials, including this one (a huge help), we got the supplies together and got movin'.

    The blue lines you see were made with a chalk marker that I got a Lowe's for $6-ish. I was amazed at how cheap that was. Anyway, you will need to measure the height and width of the wall, then figure out how many lines you will need to make the size chevron you want. Now that the chalk lines are up you can tape off the chevrons - I used Frog Tape, it looked like this:

    Then we started painting, we ended up using two coats of Valspar's Homestead Apricot (2005-3C) in semi-gloss. I, of course, tried to stay in the lines, but I am such a messy painter it was nearly impossible.

    Once finished we let it dry for a little bit, then we took the tape off. I used a magic eraser to get rid of the chalk lines and paint that wandered out of the tape lines - that worked perfectly because the paint was still a little wet - and voila!

    I absolutely love it!

    Next came the front room wall - I ordered our stencil here, and it has turned out to be so much easier than  I thought! We are just doing one coat of Valspar's La Fonda Deep Blue (4011-7) in semi-gloss, we really like the faded, varied look it gives us. I used painter's tape to tape the stencil to the wall, a level to make sure I had the stencil level, obviously, and a 4" foam roller. Dip the roller in the paint and then roll it a couple times on a paper towel, you don't want too much paint on the roller or it will drip and your stencil lines will not be as crisp (I learned that one the hard way). 

    I will post the photos of the complete rooms soon, we move in on Friday!!

    Have a wonderful Wednesday!

    Erin

Moving

    We're moving and I could not be more thrilled. I have gotten used to moving about once a year since we got married and I guess I've fallen in love with the new start we make every time we move. It has been a stressful year and I'm hoping to leave that stress with our current place. We have been through massive bouts of anxiety (on my part), the birth of a preemie niece (which is now so wonderful, but truly scary at the time) and the wedding of my aunt this last week (that one was fun). 

    We have also had wonderful times in our current place, this was the home we brought Tempe to when we got her last year. We have grown stronger as a family in this home, we now know how to breathe and keep moving on.

    So, with this new home comes new possibilities to learn from each other, gain a stronger love for one another and paint. I'm really looking forward to painting! I have big plans for this place, including horizontal striped walls that Matt is not totally on board with, yet. It is an apartment, but it feels a lot like a house - it has a fireplace, garage and terrace/balcony area for barbecuing and what-not. The master bedroom is humongous and the cupboard space in the kitchen is insane! We have not been given a move in date, so for now I will start the packing and cross my fingers that we're in by the end of the month.

    On a side note, we are so proud of our Aggies - they beat the Utes 27-20 on Friday! It was a fantastic game, one that we will never forget!

photo by Eli Lucero of The Herald Journal

Life via Instagram

I don't know if I have mentioned this before but Instagram is the absolute best thing to happen to me since Facebook. Now we can take photos, not amazing photos, but photos to show our families our daily lives and upload them directly to Facebook for everyone to see. We do not have kids, so the majority of our photos are of our dog, she is our baby right now - and she will be a year old in two weeks! It's been awhile since you've seen us, so here are a few shots from our lives the last month, or so.

These are what I like to call, 'Tempe adores Matt.'

And now, I went to Houston last week for a conference and had a great time! I had never been to Houston, now I think I want to take Matt there to explore!

Now the photos I have titled, 'Tempe tolerates Erin, doesn't really love her as much as she loves Matt.'

Have a wonderful weekend!
Erin, Matt & Tempe, too!

When the going gets tough

   ...the tough go online shopping.

   I've decided lately that life is too short to let everything bring you down. We need to learn to laugh at the quirkiness that is life. I know that things get difficult, but that is no reason to stay down in the dumps. This last summer was filled with anxiety and depression, but I found my way back by taking the bull by the horns and screaming, 'This is not how life should be!' I'm still here, I get up every morning and thank my Heavenly Father that I have a caring husband, cutie puppy, loving family and chocolate. 

    Lately I've felt that I can see everything clearer. I think I have a bit of the eternal perspective gleaming through. I was thinking the other day about life and I had an I-get-it moment. We are here to love and be loved, to help and allow others to help us. We are also never alone, people tell us that over and over but it really is true. 

   So, here is the challenge, find something/someone you love, turn on your favorite music and sop up the amazingness that is life. Go on an adventure, get out of your comfort zone. Don't wait for opportunity to knock - it already has and now it's knocking on your neighbor's door, get up and chase it down the street. 

    I know times are tough and we may think we're too busy to do this, but we need to take time to enjoy life. Most of the time I have to remind myself that it's ok to sit on the couch and watch 'How I Met Your Mother,' while Matt plays some game on his Xbox, it's ok to take time out to relax. We need that relaxing time, we need it so badly.

    In conclusion I want to say this, don't take yourself too serious. Play in the mud, jump in the puddles, run off to Disneyland, bungee jump off a bridge and never lose your childlike sense of 'not giving a crap about anything.' The best thing you can do for yourself is let go of the tension that is cramping your style. 

    Do it. Just do it.

    Erin, Matt and Tempe 

Why we adventure

Matt and I love to go on  adventures. When we say adventure that means that finding a particularly complicated address can be an adventure. None the less, whether the adventure is big or small, we love them! This weekend we went to Boise for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl where our Aggies played Ohio for the bowl title. We lost 24-23, but the trip was still so worth it. 

This little weekend getaway was just what we needed. We went to the game, saw 'Sherlock Holmes' and enjoyed the nice drive to and from Boise.

We took our little digital camera, but forgot to put the battery in the camera - yep, we're awesome. So, we just took a few photos with my camera phone. It's a beauty ;)

New York on Film: Part 1

Matt and I went to New York for our anniversary this year - June 18. We had a wonderful adventure, we love adventures! So, I promised you could see the photos we took with our film camera! 

Here you go!