That Time we Went to an Improv Comedy Show

A few months ago, I saw a deal on Groupon for LaughingStock, an improv comedy show. I decided to buy tickets because they were a good deal and we've never done something like that before. So this weekend (of course the last weekend they could be used on because we're procrastinators) we went.

But obviously we had to eat first, so we stopped by Johnny Rocket's at City Creek.

I got a chili cheese dog and split a s'mores shake with John so I was happy. He was happy too until I took a picture of him. If looks could kill . . . in my defense, I'm pretty sure it's cameras he hates and not me.

Once we'd killed some time at City Creek, we headed down to the show. On the website it said the doors opened at 9 and it was "general admission seating," so of course I figured we'd better get there early. Turns out the doors didn't open until 9:45, it was assigned seating, and even if it wasn't, not even close to every seat was filled. So we got to hang out in the lobby until the doors opened.

As you can see, we took some really beautiful/grainy/awkward pictures. John refuses to smile at the camera, so it's not my fault that I don't have any normal pictures with him. The show wasn't as funny as ComedySportz in Provo (in my opinion), but it was still good and it was nice to do something we hadn't done before. Plus I'm starting to really love downtown SLC -- I don't know where that came from, but I'd be happy to spend time just exploring the city.

Snapshots From the Weekend

This past week was kind of rainy, but I really enjoyed it. This is my view from under the umbrella walking to get the mail.

On Friday John surprised me and took me to The Roof. It was the first time we've ever gone (together) to a restaurant fancy enough to dress up and I loved it. 

We got there later than I'd normally prefer to eat, but it was perfect because the view was amazing. Check out that sunset.

We may or may not have tried one bite of almost every single dessert. It's a buffet. That's allowed. And yes, they had creme brulee and macaroons. It was like a little trip down memory lane (minus the being in Paris part).

I felt guilty because of the price per plate, but it really was such a great night and it's something I've never done before. I loved it. (Oh, wait, I already mentioned that). 

In my free time, I did a little sketching (picture of the finished product to come later this week maybe).

And I got to go to my friend Rebecca's reception. We've known each other since elementary school and I have so many great memories with her. I wish she lived a little closer (she and her husband Jay have a house in Hawaii), but it was great to see her. Jay had so many nice things to say about her and you can tell they're a good match -- they balance each other out.

And finally, a snapshot of John and his new niece Peyton. I don't know what it is about babies and him, but he can always get them to stop crying.

A New Home for my Christmas Cactus

Last year I mentioned that I love plants, but I have a black thumb, so I needed something that I couldn't kill. I had this ugly little cactus with a flower on top when I was little, and it lived FOREVER. I honestly think it was immortal . . . and I feel a little guilty because I'm pretty sure I just threw it away when we moved.

Anyway, my dad must have been listening, because right before Christmas he brought home a beautiful cactus plant and told me that he couldn't find any chocolate oranges (my favorite), so he'd brought that instead. It doesn't look much like a cactus (it gets these AMAZING flowers every year in December, hence I call it my "Christmas cactus") but I haven't killed it yet so it must be one.

I'd been meaning to put the cactus in a nicer post for a long time, but I just hadn't gotten around it. Then I saw this pin, and I decided I needed to attempt to recreate those pots for my Christmas cactus.

This pictures aren't the best. They were taken with my iPhone in weird light, but I've decided that I'm tired of apologizing for photos because A) I don't get paid to blog, it's just for me, B) I'm not a photographer, and C) Since this isn't my job, I don't have the time/desire to wait to do crafts until the light is right and I've got my DSL out. It sucks the fun out of blogging.

So here's the process. I bought a super-cheap terra cotta pot from Hobby Lobby and decided I wanted to make it look a little weathered and worn.

So I found a bottle of white acrylic paint in the basement and squeezed some onto a paper plate. Then I dipped my foam brush in, wiped the excess paint off, and dry brushed white on the pot.

I decided it still didn't really look chalky and worn enough (and a little too stripe-y), so I put some paint in a cup, added water to thin it down, and brushed the mixture over the entire pot.

After it dried, it was time to put on the gold leaf. I'd never used gold leaf before, so I basically just followed the instructions on the label. I wore latex gloves because apparently the oils in skin cause the leaf to adhere (and you don't want gold all over your fingers instead of your pot). I sprayed spray adhesive on the areas of the pot I wanted gold, let it dry for a few minutes (so it was tacky, not sticky), then used a dry brush to press the gold leaf onto the adhesive.

Voila! I should really spray some sealant on the pot to make sure the gold leaf never comes off, but I can't find mine and I refuse to buy more when I know I have some somewhere. My gold leaf pot is actually a little too big for my cactus, so I put a little square of foam in the bottom and set the cactus on top. Clearly I'm not a perfectionist.

But all in all, I really liked the project. :)

Potato Stamping

[Disclaimer: Most tutorials have really pretty, clearly-lit, focused photos. I'm not a professional blogger and I have a lot to do during the day, so I made this while the sun was setting/after it set. The photos aren't amazing, but I think you can at least see the steps. It's a miracle that I remembered to take pictures of the process at all, hah!].

John bought me some nice shoes last week, so I decided to make something for him (I don't buy shoes). I wanted to do something with Instagram pictures, but I wasn't sure what. I initially thought I'd mod-podge some book pages on a cardboard background and then put the pictures on top. But then I realized I wanted something a little more guy-ish. I decided to do some potato stamping (which I haven't done since I was really little) because it would allow me to have a bold pattern and color.

If you haven't done potato stamping before, the idea is to cut a shape on the end of the potato, dip it in paint, and use it just like a rubber stamp. To start, I sliced the end off the potato (so I'd have a flat edge). Then I cut a triangle shape. You want your shape to be raised, so everything around the shape needs to be cut away.

Here you can see that the triangle shape is raised.

You can cut any shape you'd like, but I decided to keep mine simple and small, since the Instagram pictures I used in my project would end up covering a lot of the stamping. After the potato stamp is ready, pour some paint (I used navy blue acrylic) onto a paper plate and dip the stamp in. I used a sheet of white paper to practice stamping on first, since changing the amount of paint/pressure can change the look of your stamp.

I found that I preferred to dip the potato, stamp it once on my practice sheet to remove the excess paint, and then stamp my real paper background [I used heavy card stock]. It takes some practice.

After the paper is dry, it's time to put the pictures on. For this project I just used Photoshop to make a grid of 1x1 Instagrams, but you could also use PostalPix and have them print out a collage of your pictures (I have the app on my iPhone). 

I used Scotch Photo Splits to attach my pictures, and that worked perfectly for me because they're repositionable and I did have to adjust a few of my rows. Turns out I can't draw straight lines OR place pictures in straight lines.

Once everything was attached, I put the paper in a frame.

You could always use regular scrapbook paper to be the background for your frame, but the stamping is really fun and interesting and I've seen designs like this all over. It's an easy way to display multiple Instagram pictures.

Silver Lake

The first date John and I ever went on was to Silver Lake, even though we'd met before his mission. That was a little over two years ago now (August 15, 2011). I like to think we've moved up a little in life because at that point John was driving his parents' SUV and we got free food from Quizno's (and even that was more than we could afford). It may also be worth mentioning that he had to stop at exactly 7:00 PM and take a pill to kill all the lurking parasites hiding out in his been-home-from-the-mission-for-five-days body (that was definitely the first/only time a date has told me something that interesting) and he got eaten alive by mosquitos (as if having to tell your date you have a prescription to de-worm yourself isn't bad enough). But he made it through the night and I wasn't scared away by the fact that parasites and bloodsuckers are obviously attracted to him.

So today I thought it would be fun to go back up there and walk around. The weather was perfect and everything was beautiful. I love summer.

This is the face he makes 95% of the time when I tell him to smile for a picture. It's not very pronounced because I didn't give him much time to get all cheesy, but I swear this face looks like the Grinch's smile (just way more sarcastic).

Utah has had really amazing sunsets lately because of all the fires burning (which I really do feel bad about). I've caught a few on camera and this was one of my favorites. I took it on the drive home through Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Choose Joy Print Photo Shoot

I decided that I was going to put my "choose joy" print up on Etsy. (Will anyone ever buy it? Probably not). Update: by some miracle, people actually have bought prints of it! Self esteem = restored.

So I snapped a couple pictures of it and I think they turned out pretty well. Right now I've got the original framed on my wall and I love it (until I get tired of it at least).

The pearls were a Valentine's Day present from John a couple years back that I don't get to wear as much as I'd like to (unfortunately, I don't have a reason to get dressed up and wear pearl strands regularly).

I'm really happy with the frame. It looks expensive, but I actually found it at Ikea for $9.99. I was  tempted to stock up, but I'm not sure what I'd do with a bunch of gold frames other than put them in the storage space I don't have. Sooo hopefully Ikea holds on to these babies for a few years because I'm obsessed with gold and I'm sure I could figure out something to do with them in the future.

County Fair

Today we took my cousins Brayden and Rowen to the county fair because they've never been before and their parents aren't big fans of the fair. It's one of my all-time favorite things to do, so I don't really understand why they don't like it . . .  When I was younger, we went to the state fair every single year for my birthday (and yes, I wore my overalls in celebration of the occasion).

The county fair is a lot smaller than the state fair, but it's still really fun. The boys had no idea what to expect, and they didn't love the smell. In fact, they didn't unplug their noses almost the entire time we were there.

Even while petting the cows.

Rowen didn't like any of the animals, but Brayden was pretty brave and had a lot of fun feeding the goats.

They both liked the small animal section of the fair and I have to admit I did too because I'm in love with these bunnies. I really NEED one. John says that in reality, I don't. Dream crusher.

Seriously. This little guy is so fluffy I'd just snuggle him all day.

I also saw these little baby piglets and I couldn't get a great picture of them, but trust me, they were adorable. If pigs always stayed this little I'd have at least 10.

I have no idea what this next bird is -- some kind of scary vulture pigeon? I don't want one of these.

We took Brayden and Rowen on the merry-go-round because it was a lot cheaper than riding the real horses. They loved it.

And then we all decided we were hungry, so my dad went and bought us some typical fair food (homemade potato chips and funnel cake). Brayden was waiting eagerly in anticipation (not that he's ever had those things before).

Apparently he liked them.

Friday Tie Dye

Friday was an interesting day. I got a call at about 4:00 that Jared's former mission president and his wife and a Chilean girl Jared was friends with were at our house. So I got to leave work a little early and hear all about what a great missionary Jared is. I miss that boy.

Then that night, I went over to John's house and he told me we were doing tie dye. It was really fun and I've only done it once before (for FHE my sophomore year of college). I like crafty things in any form, so this was one of the best activities John's ever planned.

This is the "before" shot when everything was still clean and white.

And this is what happens when I say "smile" while John is tying his socks.

The end result. We didn't even get any dye on the wood floor, which I was pretty proud of.

However, I was not proud that we forgot to use latex gloves for the first few minutes.

After you put the dye on the clothes, you have to wrap them in plastic wrap and let them sit for 6-8 hours. So the next day, John rinsed out the extra dye and threw everything in the washing machine and this was the final product.

We are now well on our way toward becoming hippies. I'm sure my parents are very proud.