One of my favorite rooms

Ok, in finding my design style I am finding that I love anything white or anything that looks like a temple. Dan and I both love the maps that are framed in this one...

All that glitters

I have been looking into selling engagement rings with Wilson's Diamonds.
For my follow-up interview today I was supposed to sell cameras but I asked Dan if I would really be able to sell diamonds.
He replied, "just study diamonds for a few hours and then you'll be able to."
It's true, what I study I love.

Blessed

I have been so frustrated this last hour about some scholarship confusion and how much school costs that I just felt like crying.
I decided to call our new little wish kid, Jiselle, to see if that would cheer me up. I spoke with her father who is in the hospital right now as they do surgery removing tumors. It is such a scary surgery! It was just really helpful because a few thousand dollars had me down but how hard would it be to have my daughter's life in jeopardy?
I am so grateful for things like that that put life into perspective. 




 "He who has led the humble life has guidance in his heart."

Another one of those things was a movie we watched last night called "Captain Abu Raed." Little children think he's a pilot and he begins to tell them stories from his "travels."
He begins helping these little children. One little boy has to sell so many wafers a day so Captain would come buy them all so the little boy could go to school.
Then when another child is beaten by his father, Captain helps the children and mother escape and is killed in the process of helping them find a better life.
This was such an inspiring story because we too can dedicate our lives to helping others and even "live for others."

Thoughts on Winter

I saw this posted by one of my friends on facebook right as I was feeling so so cold...

Excuse me while I indulge for a moment. I'm growing a bit tired of hearing people complain about winter and about how much they hate it. YES, winter is bitter cold and undeniably less awesome than summer.  In fact, in my estimation, summer is at least 3.4 times awesomer than any other season.  Anyone who knows me well knows that I thrive in summer. Really; I have my fair share of fun when the sun is out. But come ON! Unless you get rich/lazy and move somewhere dreamy, upwards of 30%-50% of your life will be spent in non-summer months... Are you really resigning yourself to the fate of being MISERABLE for 30%-50% of the rest of your life? You're really going to give in that easily? Why not tell Old Man Winter that he doesn't OWN you and find things you LOVE about winter instead?

Like the fact that winter is perfect for reading that book you've been putting off since...summer? Or, that winter is ideal for catching up on your favorite television show while snuggling under a blanket with Mr./Ms. Dreamboat?  Or, for spending more time at the gym since you're not so busy with laying out at the pool and doing nothing? Or, perhaps for (gasp) working/studying and getting things done?  Or even for breaking a nasty habit and replacing it with a better one?

Or maybe doing something new - Enjoy local world-class skiing/snowboarding, build an igloo up the canyon and sleep in it, learn to curl/cross-country-ski, go snowshoeing or snowmobiling to a cabin, go sledding down a snow-covered road, watch Olympic-qualifier half-pipe, skiing, and bobsled competitions, go bobsledding (yes, on the Olympic track), play ice broomball, or stalk celebrities at the Sundance Film Festival?

Oh, you say that you hate being cold?

Well, maybe you could catch up on your scrapbook/journal, learn to cook a new meal or bake a new dessert, throw a party for no reason at all, go hot tubbing (it's even more satisfying in the winter), cook dinner for someone you care about, go dancing with friends, start a blog, go shopping, stay up-to-date on politics/world events, learn/develop your skills on a musical instrument, go to a play/the symphony, call an old friend, write a letter to your mom, ask someone on a date, have a Mariokart/Halo tournament, volunteer at the soup kitchen/the hospital/wherever, go to a restaurant you've never been to, visit the dueling piano bar, celebrate Festivus, go bowling, go to a BYU/Jazz basketball game, attend the rugby Sevens tournament in Vegas, watch the sunset from your heated car, kiss someone, kiss them again, catch up on sleep, build a pillow/blanket fort, play a board game, put a puzzle together, learn to fly an airplane, go to the climbing gym, go indoor paint balling, try out archery, go to the arcade, play roller hockey in a parking garage, have a Nerf war in your apartment, paint along with Bob Ross, find something novel to do with junk at DI, go to a midnight mass, go to a yoga/Zumba/kickboxing/MMA class...

OR, if you exhaust this entire list and decide that you still hate winter...I guess then you can at least say it with conviction!

----------------------

(There's got to be SOMETHING you love about winter.  Tell me in a comment below, and I'll love you forever.  Or at least until summertime.)

A lover of chairs???

In my Interior Design class we learn about chairs...for 6 hours a week I learn about chairs! And I love it! I find myself paying attention to chairs and wondering who created them and why and what time period they were in. Yesterday in class we learned about Vienna Cafe #18 by Michael Thonet. This was one of many "bentwood" chairs (literally bent wood). They were the first really mass produced chairs and over 40 million were sold by 1886! They work with country, fancy, artsy styles and in a library, shop, and museum. 

Well today I am organizing all day. And I was reading Penelope loves lists (one of my favorite inspirational blogs) and I found this picture and LOVED IT!!! And then I realized Vienna Cafe chair #18 and thought---I know that chair!!!

I am becoming a lover of chairs!

Mothers

I heard a sister bear testimony of the glory of motherhood. It is the nearest experience to the atonement as a mother gives her life and body to another. Though stretch marks do not go away, they like the Savior's nail marks on His hands can be evidence of sacrifice.

Thinking back....