A Tour of the New Place

This post is long overdue. We moved into our new apartment two months ago, and I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of it. And believe me, this post is going to have a LOT of pictures! Some of you have already been here and seen it in person, but some of you, like my cute sister Meg, haven't been able to visit me yet. So, I'm going to show it off to the best of my ability with the help of my trusty Casio.

This is the front door of my house, down a set of cement stairs. Potentially dreary, but with help from a BYU mat and a pumpkin welcome sign, it got a little sprucing up.

Here's what my entry way looks like completed. I've already blogged extensively about the wall hangings and shoe cupboard on my craft blog, so there's no need to go into more details here. But I do love my entryway.

And, oh... my kitchen. There aren't enough words to describe how much I love this room! First of all, its ENORMOUS! The cabinets are beautiful, I love the appliances, the granite counter tops are to die for, and the flooring in incredible! Plus, it's so huge that I was able to by the table of my dreams: a black, square, counter-height table big enough for 8 chairs (even though I only have 4 for now). Ahhhh... this kitchen is a work of art!!!

Here's my calendar and white board (which, if you don't remember, used to have yellow fabric behind the glass. I gave it a makeover for my new kitchen).

And the hallway, which leads to the guest bedroom and "back door" in the house (which is the door that connects my parents' house to mine). I LOVE the pictures in this hallway. They're "Who Is Your Hero?" posters that we got at Seagull Book. Amazing.

Here's my little salon, which I'm in love with! My amazing mom re-upholstered my salon chair, and it looks so great! It's really nice to have a place in my house that's really meant to cut hair in!

I couldn't show you the kitchen without doing a shot of the floor. Isn't it beautiful? It's secretly laminate, but looks like real tile, right? My dad did such an awesome job of putting it in!!!

Here's the living room, which is right off the kitchen. I love the open floor plan! Our huge couch finally has a home big enough to actually look good in! (And no, I did not clean my house before taking these pictures. Obviously. Don't you judge me).
Another angle of the living room (Mario Kart has clearly been played today...video games all over the floor...)
Little side wall in the living room, gives you a perspective of how it opens up to my kitchen. AND I just realized I didn't take a picture of my laundry closet. But the little wall that my salon chair is backed up against? Is a closet that has my washer and dryer in it. Love it!
These are pictures DJ and I made for our living room. Joseph Smith, The Savior, and us with the Manti temple, where we got married.
Other view of the living room... bet you didn't know we had a big desk hiding behind the couch! This room is seriously massive! It just keeps going!

Our little bedroom... mostly we have a huge bed, so it makes our bedroom feel small, but who spends a lot of time in their bedroom anyway? Our living space is huge, and that's what matters most. Also, I have done NOTHING in the way of decorating our bedroom. When I do, you'll hear about it :)
Bedroom from the other side

Bathroom... it's a galley bathroom, long and narrow, and that works just fine for us. I also have done nothing to decorate the bathroom yet. Including making a shower curtain. Right now we're using a clear liner. Not. Very. Cute. But it will look better soon.
The crowning glory of the bathroom... my beautiful shower! DJ, Jordan and Sean did a great job on the tile!!!
Bathroom from the opposite angle.

View of the back door from the living room, the guest bedroom door is just to the left of the double doors, on the adjacent wall. Also, notice that adorable rug on the floor. My mommy is so cute, and bought lots of matching rugs for my new house! I love them!

Guest bedroom, AKA my closet and craft storage room, AKA the sports bedroom. It's all decorated in BYU and Braves stuff. DJ had so much fun with this!
BYU sports posters and the BYU quilt I made.
DJ made this table for me at the beginning of this year, and when I decided to put it in the extra bedroom and store boxes of crafting supplies under it, he had the idea of mod-podging BYU and Braves pictures on it. He did it all by himself, and I love it!
Pretty cool, right?
View of the sports room from the opposite side.

The house from the far end, coming out of the sports bedroom. This shows you the open floor plan.

The hallway... the door at the end is the furnace room, and the one on the left is a huge storage closet that runs the length of the hallway. Perfect!
So, there's the new place! I love it sooooo much! I especially love that DJ and Jordan built it from cement walls and floors into this beautiful space! It's seriously awesome, and I couldn't be happier with it!

B-Ball

I have a confession to make. I'm not a basketball player. I know, I know... it's shocking. Because clearly, I was made to play basketball. Oh wait.... So, this fall DJ is playing intramural basketball, as usual. In the fall it's co-ed ball, and ever since last season DJ's been trying to convince me to play with him. Needless to say, I've adamantly refused. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE watching basketball. So much. Whether it's BYU, intramurals, or my little brothers, there's just nothing quite like watching a good ball game. But I DO NOT play! I was a volleyball player in my glory days. Well, the season was getting close to starting and there were still only 2 girls on the team (you have to play with 2 boys and 3 girls on the court at once, or play a man down with 1 boy and 3 girls, or 2 boys and 2 girls) The day of the first game, DJ signed me up to be on the team. When he told me, I literally thought I was going to throw up. I was SO scared! Not because I thought anyone would be mad if I was bad, but because I'm so competitive that the thought of playing a game I wasn't good at just made me really nervous. Well we went to the first game and it wasn't terrible. I just didn't want to shoot. Keep me under the basket to get rebounds and I'm good to go. Jumping is something I can definitely do, an ability which I have to thank my father for (you should ask my mom about her "fine hops" sometime). The switch from volleyball to basketball has been a little rough. I find myself going up for a rebound and instead of getting two hands on it and coming down with it, I swat it out of the gaggle of girls in the key (boys are not allowed to rebound in the key...welcome to BYU co-ed sports). Problem: the chance of one of OUR guys getting it rather than the other team is literally 50/50. It's frustrating. I'm a SETTER for heaven's sake! I'm used to tipping it on people. Anyway, I'm working on the whole basketball thing. Cause, even though I don't love playing basketball, I love my husband more than words can say, and I'm willing to do things with him that he loves. He is ridiculously patient with me, even when I'm struggling to be of any help on the court. Clearly, becoming a Savage does not mean you inherit the mad Savage Family basketball skills.

Another Stroke of Cosmetologenius

Today, my sister in law Jill asked me to do one of my very favorite things: a dramatic change to her hair. I LOVE changing hairstyles for people. I didn't take a "before" picture, but I found this picture from a couple months ago on Facebook:

Jill is on the far right with the BEAUTIFUL long curly hair. She has such amazing natural curl! I love it! Tonight, I got to cut her hair off! I cut about 8 inches and did some really cute short layers. I straightened it to make sure it was all even, but I'm sure she's going to look equally amazing when it's curly. Here's the "after" shots:

Cute, right? I love it!!!!

Love her! Oh, and speaking of changing hair, I clearly changed mine recently as well :) Gotta love a good change every once in a while!!! (Ranee, it's your turn now... you better come visit!)

Outside The Box

Today at work, I decided to make a crafting blog with two of the girls I work with. If you want to follow our crafting adventures, check us out at www.bedazzlethebox.blogspot.com (Or just click on the link to "Outside The Box" over under "My Favorites") I'll keep posting on this blog, but probably more family updates than crafting stuff. Let me know what you think of the new site!

My New Love

I have a new love in my life. Refinishing furniture. I'm hooked. Now I'm going to brag a little bit and let you all know that I've always had a creative mind and have been able to put my creativity to good use. So, naturally when I saw these babies for $10 a piece at DI, I had to get them:

What's that you say? They're hideous and don't deserve to go anywhere but the dump? If you think that, then you my friend have not been blessed with the eye for beauty that I have. DJ sanded them down for me, and we painted them the lovely shade of "Guacamole" together. (By the way, my husband is the COOLEST! He not only tolerates when I come up with hare-brained schemes like this, he actually HELPS me and on top of that, he ENJOYS it! Man, I love him!) After 2 coats of green we painted the table tops "Glazed Pears." (Don't you just love the names of paint shades? I sure do!) After they were painted, I sanded the corners and crevices of the table tops so the green shows through. Then Nikki and I Mod-Podged some adorable scrapbook paper to the sides, and here's the final result:

I absolutely refuse to believe you don't love them. They look amazing with our big chunky couch! (I'll post pictures of my cute new place soon... until then you get a sneak peek of my sweet flooring and carpet in the pictures above.) There's just something I love about taking something beat up and unattractive and creating something beautiful out of it! I also love that my creations are unique, not something anyone else could just go pick up at Ikea or something. I told DJ that when we have a house we're going to need a little shop in the yard behind it so we can refinish furniture together. Wouldn't life be lovely if i could just craft and refinish furniture and make a living off of it? Maybe someday I'll be so lucky :)