House Makeover!

Mike and I have been married for just over two months now and the house is getting closer to feeling like home. I had to take some before pictures of Mike and Andy's place to fully appreciate the changes made. It has been really fun putting it all together with Mikey.
The biggest change is the living room area.

This is the before picture

And here are the after pictures

We had everything repainted which made the biggest difference. We didn't have a lot of furniture pieces to work with that went together, but I like a more eclectic look anyway...

I wanted to find some colorful pillows to add to the sofa because it was so plain and when we started looking for some I realized how expensive they are. Why are they so ridiculously overpriced!? Luckily, mike and I found these really cool dish towels in all these bright colors at Anthropologie and figured we could make our own pillows. I just folded some in half and back stitched them with embroidery thread to make the small ones. And then we found some that had similar patterns to make a front and a back for the bigger pillows. I just recycled the batting from old ugly pillows and got some new filler for some.

It was fun to make them, super cheap and they turned out pretty well.

Homemade pillows

The Kitchen got a bit of a makeover as well. Mostly just color and I am still hoping to change out the gross linoleum for some inexpensive tile...

Kitchen Before

Kitchen after

The other rooms are not entirely finished. Our bedroom is coming along and the guest room/office is slowly getting organized.. but this is what I have to show for now:

Bathroom before
Bathroom after (different one but gives you the idea)
Bedroom before
Bedroom after

It has been pretty fun and I am excited to finish the rest!

The Presets concert

Mike and I went to see The Presets last night and it was a fun show. They have some great dancing tunes! They are kind of a techno group, but so fun.
Mike and I had gone to another concert a few weeks ago and the opening band was some techno group, but the sound was TERRIBLE. It was a huge mess of noise with random screaming here and there. Last night we were appreciating how The Presets have mastered their sound so it makes sense.... YAY for talented musicians!

Superhero test

I found this link on one of Mikes old blogs... Pretty funny
My results:
You are: Green Lantern

Hot-headed. You have strong
will power and a good imagination.

Green Lantern		85%
Superman		80%
Robin		75%
Wonder Woman		65%
Supergirl		60%
The Flash		45%
Spider-Man		40%
Hulk		40%
Iron Man		40%
Batman		15%
Catwoman		0%

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Speed Racer

So Mikey spent the better part of last year living in Germany, doing animation for the new movie Speed Racer. He was really excited to be able to work on the movie because he loved the cartoon.
It opened in theaters last weekend so we went to see it with a bunch of friends. I thought the animation was great!
It is too bad that there are so many bad reviews circulating around because I think it is worth seeing, at least to see Mikes animation in the movie :)... Most of his work is the Fuji Race.. He animated all of the cars in that race. He also did some other clips in other races.
All in all.. it is fun to watch.

Photography

I purchased a Canon digital SLR last year to test out my photography skills and start a new hobby.
Turns out I love to take pictures!
I took one class just to learn the basics and I have been testing it out....
It helps that Mikey is great at photography and he can help me with little hints along the way.

I have found it is hard to stay enthused about it all the time, as with anything, but it is not long before I miss "trying" to be artistic and pick my camera up again.

I compiled a bunch of some of my favorite pictures over the year on my flickr account.

Here are my top 13 favorites
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

I still have a lot to learn, but I am excited to look back on my pictures to see if I have progressed. The pictures posted are in order according to time so maybe I have improved a little over the course of a year.

My sister started taking classes as well and I feel like I need some lessons from her already! Look at these two great pictures she took...

Things to talk about.....

I guess I have some things to say now! HAHA..
I got married on March 15, 2008 to Mike Warner, which makes it the best day EVER!
Everyone told us it our wedding day would be such a whirlwind that we would not remember most of it. Mike and I were both happy that that was not the case for us. It turned out to be such a fun day! Our ceremony was later in the day (1:40) so it gave us plenty of time to sleep in and get ready. My dress turned out great..
The ceremony was simple and nice ( I admit I do not remember much of what the sealer said due to nerves), but we both said yes, so that part was great.

We then took a bunch of pictures outside with everyone with our FABULOUS photographer kate benson
It was unbelievably cold! I thought my hands were going to fall off by the end of picture time. It was pretty bad, I was crying in between pictures at the end, but it was worth getting more good pictures.
By the time we were done, we went over to the reception hall (23rd floor in downtown Salt Lake). I was so happy to see all of the decorations after a fast 3 months of planning.
It looked great... the flowers were AWESOME (done by my friend Meikel Reece) as indicated in my bridal bouquet and tables...
The cake turned out really cool...
The food was awesome.. I didn't want to have regular reception food so I found these great caterers who did a selection of food Mike and I like.. we had pulled pork sandwiches, stake and cheese sandwiches, mac and cheese, potatoes, key lime pie, churros etc.
The churros were the favorite food, but the mariachi band was the BEST part of the party!
I found them on line and they were so great!
It was a blast and I am happy to have the day still in my memory rather than a blur.

We were off on our Honeymoon shorty after to Kauai, Hawaii were we spent 9 relaxing/adventurous days. (pictures of the honeymoon)

Now I am living in Santa Monica, California and adjusting to my new home that is a bit different from Provo, Utah. Luckily I have Mikey to make the adjustment easy.