My craft project post wedding by 3 years

Hey there friends and neighbors! I recently decided to make an arts and craft project because let's face it, I'm bored sometimes with the full summer off.
How this began: when David and I sent out our thank you cards from our wedding we put a tiny 2x3 picture of us in each envelope. After I was done I had a lot left over. I felt guilty throwing them away but knew no one really wants 40+ of the same picture. So what to do?

The middle: I decided I wanted to make a canvas-like collage of these little hummers and have wording over them of one of our favorite quotes. So I bought a canvas at $6 from michaels and I forgot my dang school ID for an additional 15% off so it could've been cheaper but whatev'. I also picked up lettering and spray-your-face-to-concrete-and-it-will-never-come-off all purpose glue from there also. I laid it out flat to do a test run and it looked like so:




Kind of nuts if you ask mE so I knew I had some blingin gold spray paint to make the letters "pop" more but after I did the Y as a test run I knew it'd be took much bling and decided to go in another direction.


The final product: The results were okay. It was a messy porch project but I had fun. Will I hang it in my house? Eh probably not for the whole world to view but in a closet? Sure, why not.





FYI the quote says "quit your life and stay with me." mxpx, it's a great song.

Hello Xbox Users

Hi, my name is Chelsey Lynn and I like to play xbox with my husband.

More specifically I love to play Halo with my husband. It doesn't matter if it's campaign, firefight, or online.

What I don't like is the fact that I'm a girl gamer and it opens up the flood gates for the boy gamers to be creeps.

No, I don't want you to "teabag" me. (*stupid gamer move)

No, I don't want to play a custom game with only you.

No, I don't want to become your xbox friend.

No, I don't want to "rock your Halo game all night long."

No, I don't want to "take care of your babies."

And No, I especially don't want to be your girl.

My latest Xbox invite:

I may have been a little fed up with stupid gamers and responded kind of snarky....

you think I love my corgi?

Via Sasha the iPhone

The great birthday turtle

My good friend Brandon as pictured here turned 25 last weekend. He's pretty awesome so I thought I'd celebrate his awesomeness with a super cool cake.



Now I knew that for my sweet sexybakerman I couldn't just do any ole cake. So I got my creative on an googled turtle cakes(sea turtles happen to be his favorite) and decided I'd have a go at a turtle cupcake design found all over google search. Now they used big/normal cupcakes but I only have a pan for mini's and let's face it- smaller=cuter.




So after baking a butt load of these little bad boys I let them cool for 'bout one hour then got to the arranging as seen below.





Then with a little chocolate frosting, vanilla frosting, and food coloring I got nice and goopy (at least it was tasty) to finish my birthday masterpiece.









I am no kitchen/baking angel but all that mattered was that B-rad enjoyed his cake and from the partying we did that night I'd say he did! My hubby def. Appreciated the mini bundles of goodness too for the next three days. Lucky me, I'm not a cake fan! :)

P.S. This was via Sasha my iPhone. How did it turn out?

Let's get the ball rollin'

Can't you see David and I being awesome homeowners? I sure can.

It's consumed me and until recently I've tried to hide m craziness about it. I keep telling myself "not everyone wants to hear about your future bungalow Chelsey." But, like I said, I've decided to let out my crazy obsession and share it with the world.

So for today's post I want to tell you what we're looking for in a house. At least the abbreviated version.

1. We want a hunk of land. No, not acreage but something to call 'our dirt.' I'm tired of having "shared" areas. It's uncomfortable, crowded, not very private, and not to mention I don't want to raise apartment kids. If you don't understand that term you obviously didn't live across the street from apartments your whole childhood. (*Please don't take that offensive anyone, not all kids fit into that stereotype.)

2. We want a fixer-upper. Not only can we not afford a shiny new house, we don't really want one! I love reading Better Homes and Gardens to see all the fabulous remodels and up-do's people perform on houses! I'd feel guilty replace the brand new carpet in a brand new house to put in my beloved hardwoods but in a fixer-upper? Guilt free because let's face it, it'll need to be done! We also like to work together. It's such a bonding experience to work toward a common goal and get to see the end result of your labor.

3.(Secretly) We(and I really mean I on this one) don't want it to have a washer and dryer. Well that seems dumb doesn't it? I want an excuse to buy my idea of a housewife's naughty dream. That's right, a front loading RED washer and dryer set. David thinks I'm silly but boy do I want them. I'm normally not really a pick it before you have to(get that?) kind of person but these bad boys I've drooled over for years. Once again, I'm tired of apartment(condo right now) bottom of the barrel washer and dryer. I hate that it take 3 times for my towels to dry, and yes we have cleaned out all the ducts, some dryers just naturally suck.

4. We want a dining room. If you've been over to my house you know that our dining room consists of my college table that has been converted into a front door/foyer table. We have no chairs (because they all broke) and we never eat there. We sit on the floor to eat. Unconventional, I know but still pretty awesome, right? I already have my dining room designed. David, who I have learned is quite the craftsman, has agreed to make/build me a booth style, breakfast nook type dining room. No matter what kind of house we live in formal dining just isn't our thing. This cafe style will be the perfect fit to our life.

5. We want a garage. The main reason we want a garage is why? David wants to prove to both our families that garages are for cars, not everything else. It's rather hilarious to listen to him "discuss" his future plans for his/my cars garage.I guess if I can have my red washer and dryer he can have his clean garage. Most people say "yeah, we'll see if you can actually do that when you have a house," my argument: I hate junk. If it has no purpose just get rid of it.

But Chelsey, what about specifics? How many bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, and all the like? Where are you wanting to move? We'll my friends, I want to leave a little bit to a surprise. I'm convincing my mom that we're moving to Montana, and if someone wants to hire me in Spokane, why the heck not?

P.S.  Remember this cutie? He turned one on April 8th. Yeah, he still sleeps like a porn star...dirty dog.

The new purpose of my blog

As you may remember back in January I posted about taxes and how much I hate them.
I had three options, remember what they were?
1. Baby.
2. House.
3. Africian Clicky Language.

I can't have 1 without first having 2 and once again I'm kinda scared of 3, so 2 it is.

David and I had our "come to Jesus" moment about our finances and decided it was time to do a 180. We realized we should be saving over a grand a month...and we are now trying (being the key word) to do that.

What does that have to do with my bloggy-mc-blog? Well, my blog is now going to be the adventure of bringing us home...or to our home for that matter. We are not debt-ridden or credit-slaves but on the other hand we aren't home-buying savvy knee deep in the "know" of what to do with thousands of dollars put away. We are just a young couple trying to get home in the WORST housing market since the depression and boy do we want it bad!

So I invite you along on our really crazy journey to buying our first home. We are trying to do it alone (aka no government second loans or friends co-signing) and the right way. We want to be 100% happy with what we buy and we want it to be long term. We've seen quite a few of our friends buy "what they can" just so they can...and you know what? They want out already. It's scary to see that and I don't want to be that way. I want to love my house, work on my house, and eventually start growing our family in that house. I'm so excited that this process has begun that it is literally consuming me day in and day out (don't worry, David supports it!).

Anyway, the market is scary right now for homeowners but great for David and I. We hope to be starting the "buying process" <-whatever that is, at the end of summer/early fall. The third quarter is when the market is supposed to have fallen extremely low which means more types of houses for us to look at assuming banks are terrified to let go of some money. It's kind of scary if you are at the other end of the spectrum. Just the other day I was looking at our condo complex and we have 9, yes you read that right, 9 condos for sale! That number may not be gigantic but in a complex of under 70(ish) thats over ten percent!

If you ever feel like giving us, or me specifically, advice feel free! I love talking to anyone about this and feel like everyone has some sort of input that may help us on our journey. And just so you know I'll try not to make it too boring and still show the cutest pictures of my ridiculously handsome puppy (who is a year old on April 8th!).

Here are the two articles in which I was reading about 2011 housing forecast.

Housing Market Outlook 2011: Unsettled, Underwater, and Unsold

2011 Housing Market Forecast

My Wild West

The quickest update in the wild west:

• I have only one class after then one (15 class session all together! WOOOO) and then I will be a employable ASL teacher. If you know anyone who's hiring send it my way.
• There is less than 3 1/2 months left until glorious glorious summer time for me! AKA NO work and still paid!
• David is going to be taking a class to get his national welding certification soon! Holla'!
• Puppy is the most amazing creature to walk Lakeland Hills. We are currently trying to teach him how to "pound it." I'm sure if we tried a little bit harder than we are he'd have it. He's a really quick learner but his momma is being lazy bout the whole thing.
• We went camping last month with John, Moriah, and thier cute pooches. It was super windy but we still had an awesome time watching b-rated movies in the camper and sitting 'round the fire. We can't wait to do it again, hopefully when it's warmer and less windy!
• Our new favorite XBOX game is Borderlands. With over a million different gun combo's, how could it not be? I want to move to the planet Pandora just so I can snipe some skags!
• We finally got around to actually playing the Kinect and it was A LOT of fun.
• The Jarvis family is on a VERY strict budget system these days. Remember me talking about taxes and if we should have a baby, buy a house, or learn a clicky language? Well no matter which we choose we need a financial backer and since no one is really willing to invest it has to be us.
• Just kidding, the budget is strictly for a house, not the other two...seriously, no babies, and the clicky language I'm just going to learn off YouTube.
• David is going to Colorado to help his brother and wifey move back to Warshington. I'm so excited to have them close...even if they will still be 5 hours away! YAY!
• I'm interpreting TWO that's right TWO Pacific Northwest History classes this semester. Remember at my work the classes are 90 minutes long? Well that pans out to be 3 oh so long hours of all about PNW fun...Yeah, I'm basically a genius when it comes to this area. By June you'll be able to ask me anything onthe topic and I'll not only tell you but probably recite a Native American poem about it. <- this is my my title is the west of the wild!
• And now for the best part, pictures.

Okay I lied...sorry....the server isn't allowing it. I promise I have some awesome ones. If you'd like to see them be my FB friend and go look at my album.