Great Things in Store!

So, as I stated in my previous post, darling Clint was laid off. However, he has already had one job interview, and he has another one coming up this week! It's a pest control position, and it has great benefits, Plus, once he learns how to efficiently do his job, he can apply for other open positions around the country!

And for those of you who don't know, neither of us want to live here in Bakersfield, CA... So we're both excited about that possibility of moving. He already met with the owners and they really like him. SO he's going in for an official interview this week. Please keep him in your prayers!

Tomorrow we're having a huge BBQ at my mom's house with my family and Clint's family. There's gonna be about 30 people! That's like the biggest party we've ever thrown! At least the biggest one I can think of... It's gonna be a blast! I will take pictures and post them on here. So good happy thoughts about that event!

Speaking of happy thoughts, I have a handful of friends that are pregnant! It's so sweet to see how their lives are changing for the best (not that their lives were bad or anything, but a baby is always a plus!) and the growing bond between them and their husbands. One of those friends is coming over tonight for tea and cake! :D Sam, Ashley, and Tawny (the soon-to-be-mommy) are all gonna come over for a quick visit! So exciting! They're all on their way over now. So I'll blog again tomorrow and update with lots of pictures! See ya later!

Life

Hey there!

I haven't been here in a while, and I believe it is time for an update from Mrs. Carpenter! Well, the biggest (and crummiest) news is that hubby got laid off from his job. Times are hard, and his employers couldn't afford to keep him. Though, one of the bosses said that if things pick up, he'd call him and invite him back into the work. So there's a silver lining on this ominous dark cloud...

Some brighter news: my sister FINALLY got her house! Britney and David have been fighting to get into a house for a long time! And it's finally happened! Hooray! Some more great news in my small world: I have multiple friends that are pregnant! And my mom bought me a sewing machine for my birthday, so I'm going to practice making baby quilts and clothes for my friends so that by the time WE have children, I'll be all pro-status!
While I'm on the subject of sewing, let me just say this... I am scared of sewing any part of my hand to fabric. Is this a real possibility? Probably not. But does that large sewing needle, moving up and down at a rapid speed, scare the living you-know-what out of me? Yes. Very much so. And because of this fear, I cannot sew a straight line to save my life! I must conquer this irrational fear and become a wonderful seamstress!

Moving on... Clint busted out his meat smoker and decided to see if he still knew how to smoke a tri tip over at my parents house. We ended up having a smoked dinner two nights in a row over at my parent's house! Smoked tri tip one night, and smoked chicken breasts the next! Clint still has a knack for smoking meat! And I greatly benefit from it, ha ha!

My parents have been lending a huge helping hand to us while we've been struggling... Clint's been working part time at my dad's shop and my parents are helping us in every way they can. My mom has offered to buy us food, and we've eaten over at their house almost every night. They've even offered their back house to us rent-free so we could both work and earn an income. My job only provides the apartment and utilities. I don't really get much of a pay check. So there's no way I can support us. But you know, I really am not too worried about it. Clint served a full-time mission for the church, we got married in the temple, and we're trying our best to keep the commandments of the gospel. I really do think Heavenly Father will take care of us.

Clint is thinking of going back to school, and he's thinking of a medical career. I fully support whatever he wants to do, and I will do my best to help him bear his burdens with whatever path he ends up on.

 Artistically, I'm struggling a little bit right now. I'm in a funk and I can't seem to draw or paint anything right. I know it will pass, but it's endlessly frustrating. I feel like it's happening more and more often. I'm not really happy with my art style either... I want it to be somewhat more realistic looking. I'm working on it... Slowly but surely I'll get where I want to be, I'm sure. However, on the other hand, our apartment looks freaking cute and I'm proud of it. I'm thinking of trying something new... I have a bunch of scrap book paper and I wanna tear pieces of it up and make an autumn tree/forest scenery with the shreds of paper... Maybe I will try that sometime within the next couple of weeks.

Oh, I finished my mom's shed too. Here's a picture of the before and after... 

Everyone that's seen it thinks it's the cutest thing ever. It blows my mind. Like, yeah I think it's cute and fun, but I don't think it's something to sell myself on. My mom's friend want to make an ad for me on craigslist.com saying that I can paint murals and stuff for like kid's bedrooms... Making money off of my art would be fantastic. But I don't think I'm quite at that level to sell it yet... Maybe in a year or two.

Last week I decided I hate teaching in Primary. I seriously cannot stand bratty kids. They drive me nuts. there's a couple of kids in there that I absolutely adore, but... I want out. I want out now. Me and Clint are still struggling with liking and fitting into our ward. The only people I really know are my visiting teachers. I really like them, they are super nice... but the rest of the ward I could really care less for. I am seriously debating asking to get our records switched back into First Ward. If I knew Spanish, like Clint, I wouldn't even mind going into La Cresta Ward. I hate that I'm so bitter towards my new ward, but I honestly just don't enjoy a single minute of church while I'm there. I have never felt the spirit (and maybe that's my fault because I'm so bitter) while attending that ward. We look for any and every excuse in the book to go to a different ward. We crash First Ward all the time. I miss my Young Women and my calling in the YW organization. I feel so much love and devotion for those girls, and I miss being excited to teach a lesson or to go to church and see their sweet little faces...

Well, I believe this is just about all I have to say for now. I'll try to be more attentive to my blog and share updates in my life as they happen, instead of dumping a whole lot on you all at once. Thanks for stopping by and reading through! :)

The Greatest Decor in Life is Cheap...

Okay, so this blog entry will be a sort of tutorial. Unfortunately I don't have step-by-step pictures. BUT, the great thing about this project is you really can do it however you want!

So this is what I made...

All this consists of is the following:

• Twine
• Clothes Pins
• Water Color Paints (the kiddy kind in the tray)
• Paper
• Thumb Tacks/Push Pins (whatever you decide to call them) 

This project was under $10.00. And the greatest thing about it, is you seriously can make it into whatever you want! : )

So my kitchen really has no "theme" to it... Just colors. I guess "Colors" would be the theme. I don't have any set of particular colors, I just want my kitchen to be bright and colorful. And I wanted to have SOME sort of decoration on the wall.

First thing's first, you gotta decide how it's going to hang on the wall. I can't even really tell you how I did that pattern with the twine... I hung it up a while ago, and I don't remember step-by-step of what I did to get it that way... However I CAN tell you that I wrapped the string once around each tack so that it wouldn't wiggle or fall off.

Then, depending on your wall pattern that you've just created, you can calculate how many little images you can/want to put up on it. Originally I had three on the top and bottom and four in the middle, and they were all the same size. But it's been a few months and I got bored with it, so I decided to change it up today. Solid colors are very simple and anyone can do them (regardless of if you consider yourself artistic or not). All you do is paint the paper a solid color. That's it. If you want to add design to it, then by all means go ahead. Use stamps, stencils, or free hand it. 

Then you just hang up the pictures with the clothes pins! Simple as that. Add your own personal touch to any room, any way you like... FOR LESS THAN $10!!!!



If any of you decide to do this, I'd love to see what you do with it : )

Owl

Okay, so I was lurking around on Pinterest and I stumbled upon this adorable idea...

How cute is that? I thought to myself, "Dang, I could totally make something like that really quick..." and I looked around my apartment and decided my living room could use a little extra flavor. Now, the "theme" (i guess that's what you could call it...) for my living room is Owls. I sat there and thought for a minute and decided I was going to take the concept of the flower picture above, and use scrap book paper to make an owl instead of a flower (But I still totally want to make a flower too!). 

Yesterday I went to Beverly's Crafts and bought 5 pieces of double-patterned scrap booking paper (one one side was one pattern, and on the back side was a different pattern). Then last night I picked out a 16"x20" canvas from my art room (more like a junk room, but still), and painted it yellow. Then this afternoon I gathered together my pretty papers and I got out my oval hole puncher. I used just about every inch of all the papers. I still have half of 2 papers... So it really doesn't take much. Then I got to work trying to figure out the pattern and order of the papers, the placements of everything, and where the heck my glue was! 

After I found the glue (it was on top of my desk the whole time...), I began piecing my owl together on the canvas. Long story short, this is the end result!

For the eyes, beak, and ears, I just used my x-acto knife. Scissors would work just as well, but I was too lazy to get up and go get them from the kitchen. My knife was just sitting there on the table, so yeah... I used that. But yeah, this was really quick and a fun little project to do. I recommend it to everyone young and old! It's super easy and fast.

Flowers and Trash

okay guys. I'm going to vent a little bit, so if you're not interested in hearing this... move along. Or, you know what, if you're a new-ish parent with a child, just take this into consideration PLEASE.

As you know, I'm an apartment manager. My complex is small, just 19 units, and we have a couple of nice little gardens that we are trying to get started; one in the front all along the building, and one inside our courtyard. Well, there are families that live here with children. I like all the families and every one pretty much gets along. Well, there are just a couple of children in particular who have decided to go out and make friends with EEEEVERYONE in the neighborhood. Good for them. I'm honestly very glad that they made friends. HOWEVER, I am not okay with them giving out the front gate code to all the kids in the neighborhood. The kids they tell the code to tell other kids and adults. So the whole neighborhood can get in. Which is not what we want. I have children running around here all day long. Some of them should be in school. There's a few of them that are 5-6 and they're just running around the neighborhood (mostly here) and they are destroying our gardens.

The kids will come inside the courtyard (which is not very big...) and they will play football or tag, and all thirty of them will run and trample all over the flowers and plants. "Play out front!" I have told them over and over. Well, guess what? As soon as I leave, BOOM. They're back inside. My residents are getting irritated, and some are even wanting to move because of this. Our courtyard looks like crap. It's all dead and gross. And all the apartments face the courtyard. So everyone can hear how loud these kids are.

Well, my darling husband came out one night after I had gone off to run some errands and he asked the kids (along with some adults who don't even live here) to go out front to play. "Oh we're just finishing up." One of the adults said, "Okay, finish up out front. I'm not asking. I'm telling you to." Clint tells them. Well, this is about the time when I get called. Clint tells me what's happening and continues to tell me that no one even went out front. Everyone stayed in the court yard.

I don't want to tell you how to raise your children. That's not my place. But I am going to ask all of you to please teach your children some respect and some manners. It's not okay to pick flowers on private property, and there are reasons why adults and authority figures ask children to do stuff. Like playing out front. It's so frustrating. My property looks like crap. My garden flowers are limp and some are completely ripped up. These kids are so disrespectful and destructive. They've messed with our sprinkler system, broken a sprinkler head, killed our grass and flowers, broken a part of our tree, and they leave their toys/shoes/trash all over the place! It's horrible. And I'm quickly loosing patience with it. I filled up an entire trash bag full of cookie wrappers, ziplock baggies, chip bags, band aids, and all sorts of other crap that those stupid kids have left around the property.

This is so stupid. This is how much trash I gathered out of just one of the area's in the front garden.

 I changed our gate code today, so hopefully this wont be as bad as it has been. Hopefully my poor garden perks up and lives. I don't freaking understand how some of these parents can just let their kids run around all day unsupervised. I had one adult come over and say "My nephew plays with the other kids here in the pool." I told her "Ma'am, we don't have a pool on this property." So then she just walked away confused and calling out for her nephew. I was shocked! Who does that!? I would like to know where my child is at all times, or at least know that my child is with another adult that I know and trust. Ugh, it just sickens me how some of the adults in my neighborhood genuinely seem like they could care less about their children. I don't know that to be a fact, that is just my opinion that I've gotten from observing what's been going on.

Some Thoughts With Some Pictures

Okay guys, I'm totally in my office right now with not a whole lot to do, so I'm using stumble upon and I'm coming across some interesting, inspiring, hilarious, and beautiful things. And, of course, I'm passing it on to you. : )

 Recently I just blogged about beauty. This picture would have been perfect to throw in with it. If you have not read my beauty blog, read it here. Also, I totally agree with this picture. Everyone needs to smile, because every one is beautiful or handsome in their own way.

 Okay, now I know we all have our judgmental points in our life, "Oh my, why would anyone let her out of the house like that?!" Sitting in my little office that over looks my entire neighborhood, I find it quite hard to not be judgmental sometimes. Often times I end up texting Clint telling him "Please, don't ever let me wear/do ____." Which is honestly silly. Why waste energy focusing on all the wrong in the world? I am going to challenge myself and all of you to say something nice about someone, whether it's out loud or just to yourself, when you are tempted to criticize. We can do that!

Now, I can think of someone right off the top of my head that is a perfect role model of this. President Deiter F. Uchtdorf. I love that man! He's always smiling and he delivers such sweet, simple, and loving messages. For those of you who are unfamiliar with President Uchtdorf, he is a leader in the Mormon church. He's such a sweet and happy man. Clint and I were discussing what it would be like to meet him, and Clint said, "There's no way you could be upset or angry the moment he walked in the room. He's just so happy all the time, he'd completely turn around the atmosphere and everyone would have joy in their hearts."

 Now for a little humor to end this blog. I don't like drinking. I'm completely opposed to it. People do stupid things when they drink, and this little comic kind of highlights some of the stupid things people have done. It made me laugh. :D Haha!

Moral of this blog:

1. Smile, you are beautiful.
2. Challenge: Don't be so judgemental.
3. Be so happy it rubs off on people.
and finally 4. Don't Drink.

A New Project

Hello everyone! So lately my mom has been wanting to get her back yard all nice and fixed up. She has a nice long patio in the back that stretches across the full length of the house, and she has a nice sized pool with a little storage shed next to the pool, a pool house was all call "The Casita," and a back driveway that is unfortunately half covered with some of my grandfather's tools and other junk (but it's all stored inside a tent/shed contraption he built so it's really not in the way). Well, my mom came to me and asked me if I could paint a mural on the little shed next to the pool.

Honestly, I'm so excited! This will be a new challenge for me, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot from it! We went to Home Depot to buy all the paint for it yesterday. Did you guys know that Home Depot has CLEARANCE PAINT!? Normally the sample sized cartons of paint are just under $3.00, but on clearance... $.50!! So we got a ton of the clearance paint and saved a bunch of money! It was awesome! We got 5 medium cans, 1 gallon, 3 bottles of spray paint, and realistically about 10 sample-sized paints, along with a few painting supplies... all for less than $100!!! My mom and I were pretty pleased with ourselves, because Paint is freaking expensive, and we got everything we needed (and more) for less than $100.

Oh! you know another fabulous thing i found out this week? My sister, Britney informed me that Amazon.com has a clearance section! "This opens up a whole new ball game!" I freaking love clearance shopping! I'm so ridiculously cheap, it's ...well, ridiculous, hahaha! But Clint doesn't mind it. He likes that I try to be frugal with money.

So hopefully today, I'll get started on the shed. I'll take pictures from beginning to finish for you, and I will have to post them in a later blog. :)

Bye, for now!