Room Switch

A few days before Chris and I headed back to Portland to get hitched, I realized that I was jealous of Chris' office window.  His view looks out over our backyard with a prime view of the Wasatch Mountain Range.  My craft room window, however, gave me a prime view straight into the neighbor's house if they decided to leave their curtains open.  The builders of our neighborhood didn't quite think about the fact that two mirrored houses right next to one another meant every window on that side of the house looks straight into the other's.

The guest room is the corner room so it has two windows.  One still facing the neighbors, but the other allows me the same view as Chris' office window.  Since guests only come about once every two months or so, I figured I would most likely get to appreciate the view a little more since I go in my room every day.  I decided that when we returned to our home as newlyweds, a room switch was going to be my first project.

Although I absolutely love my yellow and stripe walls, I opted to choose a new color to deck out the new craft room.  I know I'm already using a ton of turquoise downstairs, but it makes me so happy I chose to use it again as a wall color this time.  I did go a little more blue than green this time, though, and chose Sherwin William's color Watery.

Here's what the room looked like after I cleared it of all guest room knick knacks.  Same old boring beige.

As you can see, Farrah was a very good helper throughout this whole clearing/painting process.

Since Chris wasn't home, I couldn't remove the bed since I had no idea how it was put together.  I probably could have figured it out, but decided it would take too much time and I wanted to get painting! 

Next step was priming the entire room.  Have I mentioned how much I hate closets?  Seriously.  Hate.  Them.

Ceiling and trim paint were completed next.

And then time for color! Finally!

Isn't it marvelous?  I love paint.  Not a huge fan of the painting, but truly love paint.

Now I realize I never posted a picture of my completed last craft room and that is because it never really was completed.  I got a little side tracked with wedding and other house projects, so it didn't reach its full potential.  I will show you as far as I got with it though.  Note that I took this picture after having just got home from wedding and already moved a lot of the guest bedroom furniture in...it's a bit chaotic...not my usual style.

Let me assure you that my new craft room, which I have been slowly piecing together this week, is MUCH cooler.  I already can't believe how awesome it looks and the new guest room is stellar as well.   Stay tuned to see more pictures of both!

Open Shelves

Looking at the large open space above my new cabinets, I really wanted to figure out a way to make it pretty, yet functional at the same time.  And, of course, it needed to be cheap since I was on a wedding budget.  Digging through my old pile of deco left over from years of living at various apartments, I found three black shelves that I had purchased from Target and used for setting bridge pictures on.  They would be perfect for setting some of my new dishes and glasses on since I was running out of cabinet space.

Unfortunately, they were black like everything else I bought in the past so it was time to bust out the old furniture paint.  I opted for white to take a break from all my turquoise.

After I begged asked Chris politely to hook them to the wall for me, I realized they were way too spaced apart and had to redo them myself.  Whomp, whomp.

Second time was the charm and the spacing looked great!

All that was left was to put some of my new dishes on them and admire.

Love my new Fiestaware and cocktail glasses!

Now I'm debating if I should hang my E A T letters in the area over the light switch rather than have them on hutch...

I'M MARRIED!

I'm sure most of you know that my lengthy absence from posting recently was due to Chris and me flying back to Oregon to get hitched.  I actually thought I might have some time to post while I was there, but any downtime I had I needed my brain to take a break from wedding so that I would remain sane for the actual event.

It is absolutely amazing how so much time and effort can be put into making one evening the most spectacular night of your life.  I cannot thank both my parents enough for all the love and extreme amounts of help in making my dreams into reality.  A huge shout out to Chris' family for throwing us such a wonderful rehearsal dinner that was so relaxing and just what we needed before the big night.  And of course another big thanks to all my stupendous bridesmaids and friends who dedicated countless hours and small fortunes to spoil me rotten on every occasion.  Last, but not least, everyone who showed up to make my wedding such a magical night.  So fun seeing everyone!

The first big event for my trip home was the bachelorette party hosted by my close friend, Kim.  She and her husband, Chris, just recently bought a home on the Oregon coast in Lincoln City.  She actually works in Salem, so it's actually only and extra 15 minutes to drive there after work rather than back to Portland.  Lucky.  She told me they have been there almost every weekend since they bought it.   The place is absolutely spectacular.  The perfect size getaway home.  It was furnished from the previous owners, so all they had to do was repaint a few rooms and throw some more decorations on the walls.

I drove there with my friend, Rachel, Friday after she got off work.  I neglected to take any photos of the scene when we arrived, but Kim did an amazing job with bachelorette decorations.  I actually don't think I took any photos the entire week since I was too busy hamming it up with all my friends and relatives.  Nothing new though, right?

I grabbed a few photos of the weekend that I snagged from friends off Facebook.  Here is us before boarding the casino bus to take us out to dinner and our gambling adventure (btw I won a whole $15!).

And another we had the waitress snag after dinner at the Chinook's Seafood Grill.

And here I am opening my gift from Rachel, an infamous nightgown lover.  She got me three of these beauties, but I have to admit the one below is my favorite.  I think there was one day during the week I actually never took it off.  Poor Chris.

Our next big event was the rehearsal dinner hosted by Chris' parents on Thursday.  They decided to hold it at the McMenamin's Cornelius Pass Roadhouse in their Octagon Barn.  I grabbed this one from the internet so you could see how cool the venue is on the outside.

They actually had set up bistro tables outside which Mary had put beautiful flowers on.  Most people milled about outside until the food was set up because it was such a nice night.  Chris and I got SUPER lucky with an amazing weather weekend in Portland!

Inside the barn was lit up with white strung lights on all the beams and had such a cool vibe.  Dinner was yummy burgers and hot dogs served with tater tots of course.  After a few great speeches people were back to mingling, dancing and picture taking.  Here are a few snagged again from Facebook!

Chris and I with his sisters, Lynn and Cory.

Me and my seester, Emily.

My handsome hubby (yes hubby) and I.

Such a fun night!

After a day of rest crazy freakout trying to get the few last minute details done, it was finally wedding day!  Rachel and her husband, Aaron, who was our officiant, picked me up in the morning and we headed to the World Trade Center to start getting glammed up.  One of my close friends and bridesmaids, Laura Jay, was actually celebrating her 26th birthday, so we got her a cupcake and sang her Happy Birthday in the dressing room!  My beautiful boo bear!

Chris and I opted to see each other before the ceremony so that we could take more pictures and not keep the guests waiting too long during cocktail hour.  Don't worry, we still did a "capture the first look moment."  Then we decided to take some photos on one of the escalator/staircase areas of the building.  Good photo op?  Yes.  Bad place for a white dress and heels?  UM YEAH.  About halfway through us posing I was walking down and missed a step on the staircase.  I actually pictured my bruised and scraped up face as I was falling and barely caught myself before the insane face plant that would have put a serious damper on the day.  After lifting up my dress to examine the damage on my shin, we discovered that my knee was bleeding slightly.  Joys.  No one had a band aid over there of course, so Chris' groomsman, Jake, dug out a napkin in his pocket and the photographer pulled out some duck tape for one good looking patch.  It was then I also discovered I had rubbed my dress on the freshly oiled handrails of that escalator which created some amazing black patterns on my white chiffon.  Oh and did I mention the pollen from the flowers had also created small yellow stains on it as well?  Deep breaths.

I quickly reminded myself it's no use crying over spilled milk, so once pictures were over I sucked it up and decided to forget the small things and just enjoy that whole getting married to my amazing, smart, loving future husband thing.

My uncle Pete sent a few photos that actually aren't on Facebook yet, so there are a few in here that will be new so some people.

Here is Papa John and I heading down the aisle.  I can't tell if he was sad or relieved that Chris now gets the pleasure of taking care of me.  Muhahaha.

 Chris and I are so happy to finally be forever boos!

Not sure what point in the night this one was taken, but it's my favorite of the two of us so far (minus the dude in the background who I'm too lazy to Photoshop out.)

These are the wedding shoes my fabulous coworkers made Chris and I before I left for Utah.  They are so sweet.  I totally danced the night away in those babies.  I miss my iD crew!!!

And next a pic of our fabulous wedding cake.  I know it is a little out of the ordinary, but so are we, so it totally works.  And it fully went with our bridge/Portland theme. 

Here we are cutting into said cake much later in the night when the lights started twinkling.

And here are a few that Pete also sent of some of the rest of the Engdahl clan.

Gramps and grams Crane.

Brother Chris who traveled down from Seattle and brought us some of his company's (Lantern Brewing) delicious beer.

Seester Emily, Jim, Maddie and Andrew.

 Brother Bryan & Heidi with my surrogate brother, Ryley, and his wife, Amy.

And my lovely parents John & Karen.

And for the Bence clan, I couldn't find many on Facebook (post people!), so I pulled some from our "photo booth" website (more on that in a sec.)

Chris and his beautiful sisters Lynn, Kelly, and Cory.

The Taylors clan.

Woodman clan.

Grandma Joan and Chris' boss, Larry, who flew in from a conference in Helsinki!

The Jacko siblings, Susan, Anne, Mary & Mark.

And the other good lookin' set of Mr. and Mrs. Bences at the party.

Ah! What a wonderful night it was.  So fun to relive it through these few photos I already have.  Official wedding photos (shot by FS Weddings) should arrive to me in about 4 to 5 weeks and I will definitely post another slideshow when I get them.  If you want to see more of the Paparazzi Tonight photos, click here to check them out!

I'll also do another post soon to show you guys how much fun I had letter pressing all the invites and place cards.  Wahoo!

Hope you guys enjoyed my brief retelling of the wedding festivities.  I'm sure you all have some good stories of your own from the night as well!

Sail Away

We finally got some artwork put up on the wall and it looks so much better in the dining room!  It's amazing how artwork can instantly change a space's vibe.

Chris and I went up to Provo a few weeks back to go swimming tanning up at one of the public pools.  Across the street they had the Saturday Market going, so we decided to stop there first and check it out. I was quite pleasantly surprised.  They had lots of good looking produce and a whole strip to wander of local crafts.  There were also some food carts that looked delicious!  Chris and I had just eaten, so we vowed to come back and try the wood fired pizza another weekend (we did and it was so nommy).

Chris actually has a coworker that sells wooden owl clocks at the market, so we stopped to shoot the breeze with him for a bit.  The booth next to him was selling paintings, so I meandered over there after a few minutes.  I chatted with the booth owner and he told me that his sister and her friend are the painters and they both live down in Australia.  She actually ships them up to family here to sell at the markets.  They had tons of beautiful work.

As I was digging through I spotted this little gem.

A little further down the pile I found this guy.

Bingo.  Next up, convince Chris that they are completely necessary.

Luckily, that didn't take much as he enjoys a good beach scene as well.  Good news is they were much cheaper than the Pier 1 boat picture I had fallen in love with the week prior and they were actually the real deal, not duplicates.

After we got them safely home, I had to figure out how I was going to hang them.   Being canvas with texture, I really didn't want to frame them.  I thought about putting them on top of painted MDF, but realized that was going to be super heavy.  Best way was going to be making a frame and wrapping them like most canvas paintings usually are.  Practicality beat creativeness.

I hit the local Home Depot and purchased a few pine boards.

When I got them home I realized I was still scared of the saw even though Chris had showed me how to use it a few weeks back.  Someday I will get over my fear, but until then he gets to do all the cutting.

He measured them all up and created two of these frames for me.

Next step was the fun part.  Staple gun!

I went a little nuts on the staples, but I swear it was necessary to keep the canvas from puffing up.

Finally, the moment of truth.  I hammered a few nails in the wall and voila!

Aren't they marvelous?  I can't believe how perfectly the colors fit into the rest of the dining room.  

It's actually beginning to come together downstairs.  Yay!