Where did these last 7 weeks go?

At Brigham Young University-Idaho we have what is called a track system. There are three semesters: fall, winter, spring. One track consists of two semesters. Students are on either the fall/winter, winter/spring, or fall/spring track. I'm on the fall/spring track which means I would normally attend school from late April to late July and then from mid-September to the end of December. In between there are seven weeks where students can attend but normal classes aren't in session...just a few that most students would need to take to graduate. I'm also a part of the fast grad (i.e. graduate faster) program. That means I go to school all year round. Ha ha ha! That's a loooong explaination for why I'm sad to be starting school on Monday. I just had 7 glorious weeks of no school and hardly any responsibilities and now it's over and back to the real world.

I've had so much fun finding ways to keep busy. As you've seen I have done a lot of crafting (and there are more pictures to come of other projects).

About the whole school thing...I only have three semesters left! I have mixed feelings about that. I really like being in school. There is so much to keep me busy when I'm in school. I don't have to be too creative to stay busy when I'm in school but sometimes I like to have to be creative (as seen in previous posts). Crafting will most likely have to be a weekend thing for a while now. I'll try to keep posting throughout the coming semester and I will definitely post pictures of my most recent projects soon.

Over & out -
Jen

All the things I do to keep busy...

I've been promising pictures. Somehow in the move I hid my camera from myself. Well...I found it last night!! Yeah yeah! I've been taking a lot of pictures mostly because I'm not a photographer and it's a matter of odds for me to get one good picture of one project. (If I take enough pictures I'll have to like at least one of them right?)

I've been on a do-it-yourself kick lately. Jewelry has been my favorite to make so far. The first project is lace jewelry made from old drapes, glue, and water. Brilliant idea! (Can't claim it but you can find how to do it here)

For the earings I followed the same steps only instead of putting a chain on it I put earing hardware.

Also can't take credit for the next one either. Except I kind of can for the earings but they're done basically the same way. I'm not sure how well they'll hold up either. I used a glue gun to glue the top knot in place. We'll see how well it holds.

^A better picture of the earings. Not sure if you can tell from either on of the pictures but the color is a pale yellow. These are made from one of Dana's old ties. (Tutorial here)

This dress I'm just excited I liked it afterwards. I was being a ding dong and had completely forgotten how to install an invisible zipper. It seriously took me 2 hours to get it in. After much angst I decided just to google it. And whatdoyaknow?! It was on there. The tutorial even used the same invisible zipper foot and everything! Anyway I finished the dress on Sunday and wore it to church!!

Kay so this was supposed to be the big one. And it is kind of. It took me the longest to do because of the type of material. Sadly, it doesn't photograph very well. My window scarf was my remedy to using no screws or adhesive...(managers don't like that either). I'm sad to show off the pictures because they don't do it justice at all. But, I do like it in person so use your imagination. :-)

Fire extinguisher is a nice touch, eh?

Close up of the ruffle on the bottom

Close up of the flower on the left

Close up of the flower on the right

This is mostly what I've been up to the last little while. We went on a hike up to Hidden Lake. It's north of Tetonia, ID about 45 minutes (ha ha ha...that's if anyone knows where Tetonia is). I guess the closest city is Lowell (so says the trail guide). Anyway, about 3/4 of the way into the trail we stop to pick some huckleberries. They're actually really yummy. I'd never had them before and they are a big thing around here. People even have places to pick huckleberries that are family secrets. So secret that once they get to their destination they won't talk so that people won't find their spot. Pretty intense. While we were picking berries, one of the hiker's happened to notice a bear about 25 yards away from us. That's right...a BEAR!!!! Wasn't too threatening, just sat there eating the berries and definitely noticed us before we noticed it. We didn't think it was a good idea to hang around any longer so we pressed on towards the lake - which was b-e-a-utiful! It was so alive! Fish were jumping out of the water just feet away from us. Horse flies were a problem but when Dana would kill one it would sit right on top of the water and the fish would come right up and eat it! Like I said, the lake was beautiful. It was nestled in a valley and so clear (until we waded in it and stirred up the mud) and blueish green. So lovely! A good storm looked like it was coming our way...and sounded. When we could clearly hear the thunder we decided we should head back. We didn't see the bear on the way back but we weren't looking too closely either. We thought storm was coming our way so we booked it to the car.

Anyway...It's been fun
I'll post again soon!

We done moved!

We've been in our apartment now for over a week and it's starting to feel like home already. My favorite things about our are new apartment are that when I sweep the kitcken floor it looks clean, when I clean the kitchen and bathroom sinks they look clean, and our bedroom has painted walls instead of fakey wood panelling. Overall, the apartment is smaller but the floorplan is genius. I was particularly worried about how the bedroom furniture was going to work out. One of our dressers is short and long instead of tall but it fits! We were able to fit a bookshelf into our room that wouldn't fit into our living room. It's been fun trying to come up with creative ways to organize things. We moved our silverware our of a drawer and put it in decorative cups on the counter. We invested in some plastic containers to put sugar, flour, and salt in. Now they are on the counter as well.

One of the drawbacks of the new apartment is that they are really picky about the walls. They don't like screws and adhesive on the walls and they fine you when you move if there are too many holes from picture hanging nails (which are ok). This all means that I have to find creative ways to add color to the windows since our walls and window trim are all so white (which is good and bad). I'll post pictures when it's finally up. I should have it finished in the next couple of days. It's my first attempt at homemade window decorations (they aren't really drapes or curtains - just meant to add color).

Next subject. I realized a couple of weeks ago that the name of my blog might send the wrong message. Anyone have any thoughts on that? or suggestions? I'm thinking of changing it for that reason but I don't know what to change it to. Any suggestions or thoughts on that would be appreciated as well.

Til' next time!

Outdoor Adventures!!!!

We've been super busy this last week. Last Saturday we went white water rafting down the Snake River. I heard something about Hoback...canyon, I think it was. Not sure but it was up towards Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was super fun. Some friends of ours from church pitched the pay to rent a 9 man raft and a couple of those friends were certified guides on the river (very handy, especially when the river is running fast and deep - which it was). There is a company that takes pictures on one of the rapids. It was called Lunch Counter. (Who knew? They name rapids!) All around a very fun trip including when we hit a rapid our guide hadn't seen before :-).

That same Saturday Dana's brother Aaron and his family came to town from Colorado.

MONDAY
On Monday Aaron, his wife Michelle, Dana and I went kayaking down Henry's Fork of the Snake river (no rapids this time). Aaron and Michelle were in one boat and we were in another. Didn't take any pictures of that trip. Darn.

TUESDAY
Craters of the Moon is a National Preserve in Idaho. I don't think it really looks like the moon but who am to say? I've never been to the moon. There was a ton of lava rock and neat caves to go into. Aaron and Michelle's daughter, Haley, loved the caves! She was a little explorer going through openings that noone else in the group could fit through (Shown in the picture with the caption: Haley the cave monkey).

"Haley the Cave Monkey"


THURSDAY
Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Family Reunion at Dana's uncle's place.
In Jackson we wondered around looking at the neat shops and took a few pictures. We found a bear chair - very cool. That night we went to the reunion and had huckleberry ice cream. Yum! A lot of Dana's dad's family was there. There are so many of them that it's taken me some time to meet and get to know everyone. It's actually proven to be kind of tricky with the littler ones because they change so much from year to year. I love meeting more and more of Dana's extended family.

Bear chair!

In front of the antler arches

Aaron and Michelle in front of the antler arches

FRIDAY
Aaron has been into guns lately and brought one from Colorado that he wanted to fix up. By Thursday all of the parts he had ordered had made their way here to Idaho and that night Dana and Aaron worked on getting it all put together for shooting on Friday. Also a couple of weeks ago Dana bought a stock for his .12 gauge shotgun. It's an adjustable re-coil reducing stock. That means the back end of the gun can be made short enough for me to shoot more comfortably and the kick back when I shoot the gun is bareable. This was our first time trying out the new stock and it worked beautifully at first, but by the end of the shooting session the stock was wobbely and we both had little rasberries on our cheeks from where the gun would hit us in the face.

Friday was the end of our adventures with Aaron, Michelle, and Haley the cave monkey. We'll miss them but we hope to get to visit them in Colorado before our summer break ends.

Moving.......

Hello everyone!

Making another attempt to blog consistently. :-D

Kay so, our house flooded. Nothing was damaged to bad. My in-laws have been kind enough to let us stay with them while things get figured out with the carpet and all that stuff.

We've decided to move. Even though we like the place we don't like the water problems (a couple months ago we had a seal break in the tub which meant Dana had to tear part of the wall out, fix the plumbing, and replace the wall - quite the ordeal). The mold has been a problem too. After a matter of weeks my shoes in the closet have visible mold on them.

We're on a new adventure. We signed a lease for a new apartment last week. We'll still have a washer/dryer in our apartment - very nice - and we'll have a dishwasher (something we didn't have before) and internet is inlcuded in rent! Wahoo! The biggest drawback is that I might have to get rid of half of my cloths......

I'll post pictures of the apartment soon!