adele.

i've been loving adele for awhile now, but she continues to amaze me. 

her talent and beauty is so timeless and classy. 

it is something we don't see very often anymore.

i died when i saw her performance on the VMA's. 

she is so passionate and...dare i even say it? 

she has swagger. simple as that.

i actually like this live version better than the one on her album.

2011 VMA - Music - Adele

even if you've seen it, you should watch it again. just because.

camping field trip.

last weekend, we got to go on a fun getaway!

jon joined a few toyota forums on the internet, and has been conversing with guys who have the same hobby that he does: fixing up toyotas and taking them off-roading. 

this weekend, they planned a whole trip to Big Bear.

Jon and i thought it'd be the perfect time to use our new tent and sleeping bags. 

I left all the camp planning up to Jon, and he did great!

here is a picture of the truck, all ready to go with our camping gear and food in the back!

(he motioned for me to wave...)

(also, please notice the little marine buddy on Jon's antenna. cute huh! i got that for him. it's too bad he got lost at some point during the trip...)

this was the view driving up. it was so nice being up in the mountains again with fresh air. we sort of missed the freeway we were supposed to get on, and didn't notice until twenty miles later....that made jon a smidge grouchy, seeing as how he was eager to get there. it made him feel a little bit better to stop at the mcdonalds that was off the exit we were U-turning on and get a $4.99 twenty piece nugget. which he only ate half of. the 10 left-over nuggets sat in between us in the truck for the rest of the trip. 

even though it was a little later than anticipated, we finally made it up there. we met up with an online friend of jon's (seriously.) and he (roland) showed us to a free campsite were we set everything up. 

jon even got us an air mattress and a pump! he pumped it up, and then i made our bed. i thought we would be warm with the air mattress, comforter, mummy bags and two blankets over us, buuuutttttt.......i was wrong. 

we went on a night run with roland and his friend. it was somewhat sketchy, but i think i was less nervous because i couldn't see the big rocks that we were driving over. 

i actually liked riding on the trail in the truck at night better than during the day.

i froze all night in the tent, so was happy when the sun came up and it was time to meet up with all the other drivers. 

this is part of the group that we did the trail with. 

they all let some air out of their tires so that they would maneuver better over the rocks and gravel.....i think.

it was a pretty and somewhat scary trail. we were driving (and waiting for people to do the difficult obstacles) for almost five hours. it was fun for Jon to see what his truck is capable of, and to watch the other drivers do the obstacles after him. 

after a long, dusty day, roland offered up the idea to go to a swimming hole. seeing as how we were all tired and really dirty, we thought that cool water would be a perfect way to unwind. 

 the water temperature was perfect for the 20 minutes or so that we stayed in it. it was really clear; you could see the rocks on the bottom. it felt so good to wash off and swim around.

 nick's truck, and jon behind him.

 

it was hard to get good pictures of them doing cool stuff because they did it so fast that the pictures ended up being blurry. i like the one on the left though, with jon speeding towards scared roland. 

the picture on the left was taken on our way home from the swimming hole. you can see where we swam in the bottom right. it was a beautiful drive home.

while we were driving through this brush, we thought we'd give the wild critters a treat, so we threw the remaining ten chicken nuggets out the window. i assume that they were very grateful. 

hurr.

remember when my hair looked like this?

for some crazy reason, i dyed it for the wedding.

i've been regretting it since, and waiting for my hair to grow out.

because of that, lately, my hair has been looking like this:

 i have no idear why the dark brown dye turned so much lighter than my real hair. but there was a solid blah line where you could tell that my previous color was growing out.

i actually liked it somewhat. i liked that it gave some interest. but not enough interest.......

since i'm growing my hair out anyway, i thought i'd have some fun with it while i can. 

i called up my hair dresser and asked if she could dye my hair in the ombre style we've been hearing so much about. (lc)

she said yes....with some hesitation.
 yesterday, i went in and took my hair from this:

 to this.

 i liked it......it looked natural and i liked how the highlights were lighter. but it wasn't as drastic as i was hoping for. 

 you actually couldn't tell much of a difference at all. 

so i called my hair gal up for a re-do. 

she was really sweet, and this time i came with more of an explanation and a super cute photo as an example. (more lc.)

so here i am...."under" the dryer. (first time, ever!)

i think she understood that i wanted it pretty light at the bottom.

so she lightened it quite a bit....and this is what i saw when i got home:

 so light!!!! i had a slight panic attack...but after i styled it, i really like it. i've never done anything fun with my hair before. (okay...maybe i DID have a mohawk in 10th grade...and maybe i did dye my hair with box dyes a lot when i was going through weird a "emo" stage, but thats not what we are here to discuss).

i'm pretty happy with the end result. i hope it still looks good on days when i don't do my hair. as in, when i straighten it or put it in a pony tail. i guess we'll find out tomorrow. ha!

here it is:

house tour: living room. hello?

is this thing on?

where do i even begin.

i have been MIA. from my blog and technology in general. we went to washington d.c. for 9 days, came home and babysat a family of four for 8 days, went to texas for 6 days and then went to utah for 7 days. the day after we got back from utah, i started summer school. a week later, we went to st. george for 4 days. it has been a crazy summer!!! and on top of that, jon and i have been trying to keep our technology use to a minimum. we both deleted our facebook accounts (EXAGGERATED SIGH OF RELIEF!!!!!!!!!! best decision of our lives.) and have been trying to stay off our phones. it was so much fun to be on vacation and REALLY be on vacation. we got a lot of quality time together. and that is why my blog has been on the back burner. and because so much has happened that i'm overwhelmed with what to blog and what not to?

can i backtrack?

house tour!

 here she is! our living room. in all of her glory.
where do i begin.
the drapes:
i've always wanted to make the drapes in my house. not only is it [usually] cheaper, but its so much better to look at something knowing you MADE rather than picked out. also, its 100% custom! so i did the only thing i knew how to do. i called peggy, emily's sweet, sweet mother who is a pro seamstress. she majored in something at BYU? having to do with the home and family...she learned how to sew and teach people how to sew. i don't want to say what it is, because i know i'll get it wrong. emily? a little help here.
anyway, she's an amazing teacher, which is why emily is so good at crafting, and she was so willing to help me. i went to joann's and headed straight to the clearance section. i got five yards of fabric for $18. not bad, right? the only thing i had going on in this room was the rug at the front door, and the bentwood chair that i spray painted green. i definitely took a risk buying this fabric so far away from my home, i wasn't sure if it'd match or look good with what i had. i think i lucked out. i don't ever use the drapes, they just hang there and i use the beautiful vertical blinds that were already there. the panels on the smaller window are a tiny bit too small, but i didn't have enough fabric to make them any bigger. i love how they turned out.

see that chair?

 yep, that one.
thats my "Ghost Chair" designed by philippe starck.
maybe it's a knock off, maybe it isn't.
nevertheless, jon surprised me with it on my birthday!!! i had NO idea what he was getting me. he's getting better at surprises....
anyway, amazing. i couldn't have been happier.
the brown armoire behind the chair? thats what i used to house our tv the whole time jon was gone. when he got home, we bought a tv from his friend for, umm, a steal.

so with the left over money, we bought a new tv stand! now i get to decide what to do with the big empty wall the tv is on...
(see my creepy cat? she always does that. jon and i think we are alone, and look over and she's just staring at us. WEIRD.)

also, we got to get the matching book case!!!!!!! i am so excited about this. all of our books have been piled up in the guest room closet since we moved in. now they have a home! and i have a place to display some of my knick knacks.....

that cute little girl was my grandma's. a couple years before she died, she told us to pick something out in her house and write our names on the bottom of them so that we could have them when she passed on. isn't that interesting? so that's what i picked. and i've cherished it ever since. also, my dad gave me that wood piece. because, well, i love cats.

 jon's step mom made this for us as a wedding gift, and framed it with a wedding photo of us in front of the temple. i love it.

 not much is going on with the office area. i am so stumped with it. it's just so cluttered. we did take down our portraits. as much as i love seeing jon's handsome face and a huge picture of myself all day i thought that it was time to let them go.

this is what it looked like previously.