DIY Bows {Pin a week 9/52}

I love bows. They add such a simple, girly touch. It's also really handy that they are so easy to make. I've been meaning to make some headbands for my little sister and finally got around to it this week.

Here is the tutorial I used for the bows. I need to practice because mine don't look this good yet! :) I think I am making them a little too wide. I've also seen some no-sew tutorials that I want to try where you just use a hot glue gun instead of sewing.

To make the headbands I just strung the elastic through the center of the bow and then stitched it in place. Check out this post to see where I got my elastic for cheap and what you can do with the leftovers!

I'm pretty sure my sister is going to look a lot cuter (thank goodness). ;)

Just in case you forgot how attractive I am.
I might hate myself someday for putting this one up... 

DIY elastic hair ties {Pin a week 8/52}

I have long, almost waist-length hair. It can be a major pain sometimes. Not enough to convince me to cut it off, but enough that something has to be done about it if I want to stay sane. This means that I put my hair in ponytails/buns a lot and go through more than a few hair ties. (Side note: Where the heck do hair ties and bobby pins go?? It's like magic... I buy a new pack and they slowly start disappearing to who knows where. Please tell me I'm not the only one with this problem!) I have seen these nifty elastic hair ties for sale around the internetz but they are CRAZY expensive. I'm not willing to pay $12 for a pack of 5 ($2.40 each!) especially since I know I will probably definitely lose them.

I thought they would be pretty easy to make, though, so I made a trip to Pinterestland and found a nifty tutorial. (Click here to see the one I used)

These are seriously the easiest things to make. Don't believe me? Here's the instructions.

1. Cut elastic
2. Tie a knot
3. Melt the ends with a lighter or candle
4. The end

Wanna know why I love these so much? Of course you do. ;) First of all, they are SO inexpensive. I bought my elastic here for $2.55 for 5 yards. Yep, you read that right. TWO FIFTY-FIVE FOR FIVE YARDS! That's 15 feet, or about 20 hair ties, which means they cost about about $0.12 a hair tie. Score! Second, they are really nice to my hair. They don't leave a crease or tear my hair when I take them out. And third, they look cute on my wrist. Pretty much a win-win-win. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Pine trees and snow go together so perfectly, don't you think?

Today, I'm thankful for tender mercies. I've been feeling under the weather the past couple days. Nothing too serious... sick enough to be miserable and a little whiny (sorry babe :P), but not enough to let myself take a day off from seminary. Although the thought of sleeping in was very enticing, trust me. But that doesn't happen very much around here, since we're either getting up early for seminary to go on some canyoneering adventure. :)

I love the color of these berries, especially in the snow!

Good thing our rosemary plants can handle the snow... 

Today I got lucky, though. Thanks to an unexpected snow day, I got to sleep in and take it easy, which felt so good. I spent the morning reading, watching stuff on Netflix, taking these pictures, and enjoying some delicious peppermint hot cocoa. 

Hot cocoa tastes even better when I drink it out of these cute cups my mom gave me. 

Now, the only thing I need to make this day perfect is to have my husband come home. Snuggles are the best medicine. ;)

Bacon roses {Pin a week 7/52}

Check out the awesome gift I gave my dear, meat-loving husband for Valentine's Day! 

We both got a kick out of it. :) Although I'm pretty sure I think it is funnier than anyone else does... haha!

This was so easy to make, even easier than I thought it would be! I saw a few tutorials on pinterest (this one is pretty good) but ended up kind of doing my own thing. This tutorial tells you to drill a hole in a muffin tin and use that to bake the bacon, but I just used an oven-safe cooling rack and it worked perfectly. 

If you want to make your own, here's what I did! 

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Cover a cookie sheet with foil (to make cleanup easier) and put an oven-safe cooling rack on top.

2. Roll up the bacon and place it on end on the cooling rack. Bake for about 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven. A couple of them started coming unrolled so I laid them on their sides for a few minutes.

3. While it bakes, get your stems ready. I used a 97¢ spray of roses from Walmart and it worked great! I pulled off the roses, removed the petals and the red plastic pieces, and then re-attached the green parts. Wedge a toothpick in the middle to keep the bacon secured.

4. When the bacon looks done, take it out of the oven and let it cool, and then put your bacon buds (catchy, right?) on the stems with the toothpick in the center.

Voila!

Nothing says "I love you" like bacon, right? :)

Hand warmers {Pin a week 6/52}

I saw a few different tutorials for this project, but this one was one of the better ones. 

Here's the ones I made! I gave them to my siblings for Valentine's Day. :)

(P.S. This was last week's project... I just didn't get around to blogging yet.)

One year down, an eternity to go

Yesterday was our first anniversary! Believe it or not, my dear husband has managed to put up with living in the same house as me for an entire year... and I think he might even like me still. ;) 

(Photo by Mechelle Felsted)

(Photo by my lovely mama)

To celebrate, we went on a little weekend getaway last weekend, and then had a fancy candlelit dinner last night. Here's some pictures. 

Dallin is a master cheesecake maker. Yep, I'm lucky. :)

I also happen to think he is really cute, so I took quite a few pictures of him while he was making it. Be thankful I only posted a few. 

I didn't take very many pictures of us making dinner. We were both too hungry to think about that!

I'm thankful for our sweet blinds that made it dark enough for a candlelit dinner at 3 in the afternoon... haha. 

Purty!

Photo courtesy of our good friend... le self timer. :)

Awwww. 

We made Macaroni Grill's penne rustica for dinner. Time consuming, but so worth it. 

Fun fact: this is what Dallin made me on our first date. Apparently it worked. ;)

Cheesecake and chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert. Oh, so good.

Man, do I love this guy. Maybe one day I'll figure out why he was crazy enough to marry me, but I'm sure glad he did. He's a keeper. :) 

Happy anniversary, darlin'! You're my favorite.

Washi tape iPhone charger {Pin a Week 5/52}

This week's pin was super easy, and I think it turned out pretty cute... although I also think it probably makes me a crazy person. ;)

Original tutorial here.

Cute, eh? I like adding little pops of color in my life. :) 

P.S. I got the washi tape from this site. They have lots of cute choices and it shipped really quickly too!