So This Is Love

Two days ago, I was having a really bad day. I came home from school, and collapsed on the love sac, completely drained and wanting to bawl my eyes out. It was one of those days. Seth snuggled up to me and did his best to comfort me, but realized I was really down. He left for a bit, and came back with... Cheesecake and Flowers!!!

In case you didn't know, cheesecake is my one true weakness. It's my favorite food. Not dessert. Food. And getting flowers is my favorite thing in the world! 

He gave me two white roses, a red rose, a couple sprays of sweet purple waxflowers, and a stem with three gorgeous lilies (my favorite flower)! Only one is open in this picture, but the others are starting to bloom! This picture looks a little funny, because we didn't have a small enough vase to hold them all together, but they really are so gorgeous.

Yes, this husband of mine is amazing. Totally brightened my day and made me feel like the most special girl in the world. My heart melted. (I'm sure that was partially due to the mass amount of cheesecake that I consumed.)

* * *

The next day, we learned how to wrap bouquets for my floral design class. So I came home with even more flowers! 

I chose the colors to go with the ones Seth had already given me, including more of the purple waxflowers (the small light purple filler flowers around the center of the arrangment). Since I'd loved receiving flowers so much the day before, I decided to give this bouquet to him. 

Sigh... Isn't he so cute??

They smell SO good.

I put all the flowers in together, and... voila! A huge beautiful bouquet! 

Now every time I walk through my kitchen, I catch the amazing scent this thing puts off. Especially the sweet brooms (the small lavender flowers on the left.) I swear, it makes me feel so alive and cheerful!

So technically, this is not the best arrangement ever. There isn't really a focal point because there is so much going on. It could be the lily, or the roses, or the gerbera. But I just love it. Since the color pallet is pretty monochromatic, it highlights the unique textures of all the different flowers, and the crazy mixture makes it look less stiff and contrived. Mostly, I love it because it was made my by sweetheart and me. 

We love each other. 

*amber*

Inspiration Everywhere

So last night we were making tuna and cheese melts for dinner and Seth asked me if I remembered the "power of cheese" commercials. No. I didn't. He was shocked, so we had to get on Youtube to watch some while we ate. We watched this one where a politician said he didn't like cheese and everyone was horrified, then BAM. The mornings paper with the shocking headline slams to the ground.

Beautiful right?? Ok, it's just a stack of newspapers, but what I saw was a beautiful newsprint pillow. Maybe it's just the journalist in me, but I think a pillow like this would be so charming. Made out of newsprint fabric, and tied with some simple string. This one's going in the future inspiration files. 

As for a newsprint fabric, how about this one from Etsy? Covered in totally iconic images and headlines. Look, there's even Audrey up in the left corner! *sigh* I love her. A lot. This fabric would be stunning.

Well, it's time for me to go to work, but I hope you have a fantastic day. Look around you today, and be inspired by something. Anything. As *ahem* cheesy as it might sound, I am constantly finding myself inspired by everyday things around me. I truly believe you don't have to spend a lot of money for beauty. God has placed it all around us. Just open your eyes.

*amber*

My Amazing Father

  Saturday night, we found out my dad had passed away. It came as a complete shock because as far as we knew, he was completely healthy. This week, we have been so busy with arrangements and have barely had time to let it sink in. Today, the obituary was published. Ironically, who would have thought my first time being published in the newspaper would be for my father's obituary?

* * * 
 
Chad Randy Christiansen 

Son, Husband & Father 

Randy, age 49, passed away on October 23, 2010 in the mountains near Duchesne, Utah, his favorite place on Earth. He was born July 6, 1961 in Murray, Utah to Kelten W. and Carole Louise Christiansen and married Natalie Nelson November 6, 1987 in the Salt Lake Temple. They have three children; Amber (Seth), Austin, and Alyse. Funeral Services will be held Saturday, October 30, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. at Sublette Chapel, 2115 Sublette Place Sandy, UT. Friends may call from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. prior at the place of service. In lieu of flowers, a donation account has been set up at Wells Fargo for the children's college funds under the name of Chad Randy Christiansen Memorial Fund. Online condolences at CannonMortuary.com. 

* * *

I love you dad. Thank you for teaching me to be so strong and faithful. 

*amber*

Dickson Dream Home: Purple Bedrooms

Lately, I have found myself really loving purple bedrooms. It is a deep, rich, luxurious color. And on top of that, it is a restful color. Studies show that people have more restful sleep in purple rooms. How could you say no to that? The chosen color palette for this inspiration is varying shades of purple, crisp white, and a silver-gray-pewter color.

I stumbled upon this guest room photo in a Country Living photo spread, and fell in love. I've now decided that we will have a purple bedroom someday.

I love the simplicity and cleanliness of this bedroom. The light gray tulle on the sheets and curtains is so charming. And the texture and color of the throw looks ridiculously comfortable. I just want to take a nap here.

 Mmm... this photo is my absolute favorite. I'm a total sucker for upholstered headboards. With all the great tutorials for them, I'm sure I'll be making our own someday. The antique bed is beautiful. The metallicy pewter and the pattern of the wallpaper are stunning.This room is unbelievably beautiful. It feels like an amazing European retreat. That's how I'd like to feel every time I walk into my bedroom.

This is the bathroom attached to the room above. Amazing right? Look at that freestanding tub! I even love the whimsical little chandeliers, or whatever those are.

Before I decided I wanted a purple bedroom, I'd known for years that I wanted a purple master bathroom. The color is just too soothing to ignore. Now it seems obvious that we can tie the two rooms together with a related color palette.

So this room actually has the colors I would like in our master bathroom (and what we have in our bathroom now.) Deep purple, bluish sea green, and creamy white.

Also, the fireplace. Our dream is to have a fireplace in our bedroom :) And the master bathroom actually. It would be placed in the wall between the two rooms so it could heat both at the same time.

The striped wallpaper by Graham and Brown behind the fireplace is also great. I live a nice bold stripe on a wall, and those vertical stripes make your ceiling look much higher.

Around the fantasy fireplace, there would be a cozy sitting area with a small sofa and lovely little chairs like this one. Photo Credit: Amanda Nisbet Design.

With a color this deep however, lots of lightness and natural light is a must. That means big windows, gauzy white curtains that let in dreamy diffused sunlight, and crisp white furniture.

I just love the contemporary simplicity of this one (found here.) The lighting and unique artwork make this feel so sleek and chic.

A beautiful architectural mirror like this artistic circles piece, or this classic venetian mirror adds brightness and glitz to the room.

I heart these pillows from Thomas Paul. Seriously, isn't purple such a delicious color? I think my favorite color, green, may be getting jealous.

And perhaps a vase of these, no?

More purple inspiration was drawn from this wedding inspiration shoot by Victoria at The City Cradle.

* * *

Now don't get me wrong. I love our bedroom now. I mean we are still students on a tight budget, but thanks to generous wedding gifters, we were able to get a really nice bedding set.

 It's the DKNY Wildflower Field bedding. Now, don't be fooled. That's not our room. Ours was a little too messy for photography, so I had to use the catalogue picture. Our bed has the pretty comforter with some different red sheets and none of the decorative pillows. (It was all a little pricey, but I'm working on making some.) Ours is much simpler than this, but you get the idea. 

I think it's beautiful and fell in love with it the first time I saw it. Which is weird. For me. See... I'm not a huge fan of the color red. Now before you decide to kick me off the island, I do not HATE red. And in my defense, I did pick this bedding. But I'm just usually attracted to cool toned colors and red is almost too warm and overpowering for my personal taste. Don't hate me, ok? 

I just think it's interesting that I, of all people, picked red. (The contrast with the white helps.)And though I still love it, I think when it's time to get new bedding, I may have to go for something a little more me-ish.

* * *

What colors/styles/textures do you like for a bedroom? Or am I the only person that thinks so much about stuff like this? Hm... Well I need to have decided what I like before I have to decorate a house, right?

*amber*

While visions of lovely things danced in her head...

Wow, I'm blogging alot lately. That means my life is just very exciting right now! On Saturday, a friend invited me to the Bridal Fair with her. She got engaged a few weeks ago and isn't getting married til the Spring, but she wants to start getting ideas and figure out what she wants. Knowing how much I obsess over all things wedding, she graciously invited me to come with her :)

The fair was so much fun and I loved seeing all of this year's new dresses, sampling yummy cake, and checking out creative photography. Weddings are so fascinating to me. I love seeing people find their individual aesthetics as they meticulously pick each element of the biggest day of their lives so far. However, this was the first time I've ever been able to talk to a bride about what she wants, discuss details, and give suggestions on things I've seen in my years of wedding blog stalking. :) It was such a blast.

Now, I have lots of images like this floating around in my head...

Inspiration board made at Polyvore.com.

That's kind of the overall look that I picture at this point. Of course, it could be a very long shot from her vision, because so far, we haven't talked that much about it. But still... I have a feeling this will be one lovely garden tea-party inspired wedding. Congratulations my friend!

* * *

Tonight, I decided to be spontaneous and try making homemade donuts. I got home from work and felt like being a culinary genius... (ha) so I dug right in and promptly turned our kitchen into a disaster area. I used the Food Nanny's Spudnut (the dough is made with potatoes) recipe, and they turned out amazing! Thanks for the recipe Liz! (This recipe isn't posted on her website yet. It will probably be in her next cookbook though.) 

The glaze is pretty good too, and I usually hate the glaze on donuts. Mmm... Tasty.

Happy Monday!

*amber*

Yuck... Need a Lift?

It's one of those days... Well, one of those months really. As you may have noticed by my long absence. Sorry to say, that probably won't change any time soon. Life right now is pretty much spinning out of control. I've been feeling it today especially. Here are three little things that have helped me get through my day.

Amazing huh? I used to practice my tap dances with my hands, but this was incredible.


* * *

Next up... the classic psychology experiment. Way too great to pass up.


Oh, The Temptation from Steve V on Vimeo.

Oh yes, today I needed those simple pleasures and a few laughs.

* * *

Last up... a good application of that last video.

Read the full talk here.

It's so funny that I laughed at the intense struggle those kids were having, but in my own ways, I'm going through the exact same things. Life is hard. Right now, I feel like I have more than I can handle sometimes. There's a juicy marshmallow (or, let's say, slice of cheesecake, because I don't particularly like marshmallows) sitting before me saying, take me. Just quit everything you are trying so hard to achieve and take what you want now.

It's true, sometimes I need to take a break and have some fun. I need to live in the moment sometimes. But lately, I have been so tempted to opt out of all of the hard work that many of my obligations require. I've wanted to find an easy, more instant way to happiness. But let me tell you, it doesn't happen that way. Life is hard. But sometimes, we just need to breathe, and remember that we can do it.

We have a Father in Heaven who loves us and will never give up on us. Not just a shapeless God out in the universe somewhere, but a Father. He's your Father. My Father. And if He is our Father, what is ever stopping us from accomplishing anything we could ever dream of? Sometimes, I have to remind myself. I've been given a body, a wonderful family, and countless other blessings. But if I continue with patience and faith, my blessings will not only be doubled, but multiplied more than I can possibly imagine.

Sigh... Thank goodness it's General Conference this weekend. (TGIGC?) I can always use more wisdom like that in my life. It keeps me going. Have a great weekend everyone!

*amber*

Dickson Dream Home- Kitchen Inspiration

...

Yep. I don't think there's anything left to say. It's beautiful. Simply beautiful. If I could have any kitchen in the world, this would be it. The whimsical designs on the windows are PERFECT. Sigh... It's as if I designed my own ideal kitchen, and happened to have the skills required to design something so breathtaking.

Mmm... i could stare at it all day.

You can see more views of this room here. 

*amber*

First Anniversary Goodness

So basically, I am the most spoiled wife ever. Saturday was such a beautiful day... it couldn't have been more amazing.

The first thing we did to celebrate our anniversary was head up to the Salt Lake Temple. We hadn't been to the Salt Lake Temple since our wedding a year ago, so it seemed an appropriate time to make another visit. It was such a wonderful experience and we both enjoyed the remembering the covenants we made to each other. It was the perfect Anniversary activity :)

To find out why the temple is so important to us and our marriage, click on the picture to the right. 

After we finished up at the temple, Seth asked if I wanted to go to Caputo's for dinner. Caputo's is this amazing Italian market in downtown Salt Lake that we discovered earlier this Summer. I am completely smitten and will take any excuse I can to go. After the temple though, I was just in a peaceful, contemplative mood and didn't really feel like going to a bustling marketplace right then, so we ate at the temple and splurged on some yummy pie.

* * *

After that, we were headed home. I was sitting in the car, probably just babbling on about some random topic, when Seth pulled into a parking garage. What?? I had no idea what he was doing. We got out of the car and walked into a building, which I soon came to recognize as an Embassy Suites hotel. (My family has stayed at them on many vacations.) I was completely taken by surprise (even though Seth said I'd had plenty of opportunities to figure it out but was just too naive) and couldn't decide whether to be overjoyed or mad at him. Luckily for him, I chose the former :) 

We got to the hotel right during the Manager's Reception (what is known in other states as cocktail hour, haha) so we snagged some popcorn and pretzels and headed up to our pretty room. We got to go swimming, watch a few movies (with popcorn), hang out together, and really relax. It was only a one night stay, and we weren't very far from home, but it was just the getaway I needed.

In the morning, we went down to the complimentary breakfast which, at the Embassy Suites, includes a chef prepared meal of your choice. We ate omelets, french toast, hash browns, fresh fruit, and hot chocolate to our hearts desire. Mmm... After we checked out, we headed over to Liberty Park. We walked around for a while and just enjoyed the sunshine.

* * *

Thank you so much Seth. This weekend was absolutely perfect. But really, could my husband be any sweeter?

... The answer is yes! When we got home, he hit me with yet another surprise. He got us gift certificates to a nice little spa day! :) We'll each get to spend time in the oxygen bar, then head over to a nice long full body massage, and then try out what is supposedly the world's best massage chair... whatever that means. I am so excited... I've never had a professional massage before so I can't wait!

Mmm... Happy Anniversary Sweetheart. Thank you for everything.

*amber*

One Year...

I cannot beleive it has already been a year. Time has flown by. We've both grown so much more in the last year than we ever have in our lives, but we know there's still so much more we can teach each other. Every day, he amazes me. I am so thankful for the time we've had so far, and eternally grateful that we has so much more time together.

One year into Forever.

And I thought I loved you then.

I love you Seth.

Eternity, here we come.

*amber*

PS: I am aware that I haven't written on here for 4 weeks now. I just had to post something today. For all two of you that actually read our blog, Summer updates will be coming soon. Now I'm off to enjoy the day with my amazing hubby :)

Gone Fishing

It has been a long time since I've been on here... I feel slightly bad, but not too bad. I've just had WAY too much going on to even think about writing on here. And having a bit too much fun too :) I'll update eventually... but for now, I thought I'd share what we've been up to most recently.

Working.

Studying.

Realizing that it's really late and we'd better get to bed if we want to make it to work in the morning (like right now.)

That's pretty much it. So the long weekend for the 4th of July was very much needed. Saturday morning, I woke up to a clean kitchen, french toast breakfast, and fresh picked flowers courtesy of Seth. He's so sweet :)

That night was when most of the big firework shows were going on in Provo. We planned on going up the canyon to watch out over the valley like we did last year, but then we got a babysitting job. I decided that we could use the extra change. Plus I miss playing with little kids. 

We babysat these triplets that are almost 3. Two boys and a girl. The boys have some hearing problems so they are just starting to talk. They were so adorable. We only played with them for an hour before it was their bedtime. I peeked outside, hoping we could see some of the fireworks but alas, the houses in that neighborhood were just too big. We couldn't see anything. So we spend they rest of the evening watching a movie. 

Monday was great because we got the day off work! We had a lazy day, then in the afternoon, went fishing with some of our friends. It was Seth's first time fishing (sort of.) We didn't catch any, and Seth is convinced that he's cursed and it was because of him. Don't worry, I'll make sure he catches a big one before the Summer's over.

Even though we didn't catch anything, it was a perfect day at the lake. The weather was beautiful and we weren't hot or cold at all. Just perfect :)

Check out those ripped traps! 

Even though he didn't catch anything, I have to say, he's got an awesome cast.

In the meantime, I got bored with waiting for a bite. So I harnessed the power of the sun.

Then I took my ring on a photoshoot. I've never gotten good pictures of my ring before. I tried when we were engaged, but I could never get any clear pictures. For some reason, the conditions that night were perfect. And for some other reason, Seth's phone takes way better pictures than my camera... I don't get it. 

Ring on a rock. One of my favorites. I love how it focused on the ring so well and blurred the background.

Ring in a tree.

Ring on a fishing bobber.

Ring on a water pump.

Ring on a leaf.

My absolute favorite. Ring in the dried up reeds that line the shore. I love all the textures.

I loved the sailboats at the dock.

And here was our spot on the shore. It was so beautiful... we just might need to go back every weekend!

 * * *

So there's your update. More will come. Maybe sooner, maybe later. We'll see. In the meantime, enjoy your Summer!

*amber*

Fathers' Day 2010

Fathers' Day weekend was a blast. I actually remembered to snap a few pictures so I thought I'd share.

We went up to my parents' house in the afternoon. When we got to their house, we found a driveway full of Fathers' Day wishes and funny little stick figures drawn with sidewalk chalk. My adorable little cousins stayed the weekend with my family so they'd made a surprise for their dad when he came to pick them up. It was so sweet :)

I worked most of the afternoon on a baking project (that you'll see soon,) then helped my mom, brother, sister, sister's friend, and Seth put together a new picnic table for my dad! My mom got it for him for Fathers' Day. I even got my little cousins to help by telling them to help us unwrap the presents. They tore into that packaging like you wouldn't beleive. And after it was all out of the packaging, I told them that whoever picked up the most packaging material would get to pick their dessert first. The yard was clean in no time. 

Here's the new table. Much nicer than the old one, (which Seth and I will now inherit for our little backyard) and it has more seating and an umbrella.

When dad got home, we had a barbeque for Fathers' Day. It was our first summer barbeque of the year and it was oh so tasty. Homemade burgers, beans, potato salad, corn on the cob, chips, lemonade, watermelon. Mmm... We were stuffed. Apparently not too stuffed though because when I brought out dessert, everyone dug in.

I got this idea from a magazine :) How cool is that??

The steak! Made out of molded caramels. I wanted to make them out of those caramel creams with the white in the middle so it would look like a bone. But we couldn't find them :( The orange sugar is the burning coals.

Hot dogs! Aka Mike and Ike's. The black grill marks are black food coloring applied with a toothpick. Not sharpie like my mom thought. 

And my favorite... Shish kebabs! Made out of caramel and Swedish Fish on toothpicks.

Daddy with his special Fathers' Day dessert.

After the sun went down, we visited for awhile, then rented Alice In Wonderland. My family hadn't seen it yet. If you remember, it's one of my new favorite movies.

Sigh... what a great evening it was. And I know for Seth and me, it was very much needed. 

*amber*