The "Sock bun"....minus the dirty laundry.

Aloha everyone!


So after arriving too late to check in for our flight to Hawaii yesterday, we were able to get on the next flight after waiting standby. And I'm so happy to say we're finally here! It's been so fun hanging out with Taylor's family---especially the nieces and nephews! I'm especially excited to finally have more time to post the new recipes, crafts, styles, etc. I've been experimenting with.

Today's post is dedicated to those who are still confused about the whole "sock bun" thing...and just for anyone who is interested :) For the past few months (in Utah anyway) the "sock bun" has been the big 'it' thing. What is a sock bun? you might ask. Well, don't feel alone. I have yet to understand it fully either. Click here for a sock bun tutorial. While the idea is creative, I don't always just have a sock with the toe cut out lying around. And I won't even mention the amount of times I've tried this and had it not turn out correct/attractive:

This picture above is a sock bun I found when I Googled sock bun images. 

Here is an alternative method in easy, simple, picture form: 

This is a the magical tool you can use in place of that dirty laundry in your hair. 

Click here to learn more about them from the brand Goody. You can find them at basically any store that has a hair/makeup section. 

Ta-dah! So it has a little different look than the sock bun because I pulled all the sections (that's just my personal preference), but you can really do whatever you want with it. Anyway, there's just a fun idea if you're wanting a quick 'sock bun', messy bun, or anything. Those Good Spin Pins are just little miracles in a package. 

Colored Jeans. Happy face.

          Hello everyone! Happy June! I love that it is summer. I have so many things to blog about, so please keep following and giving feedback! Recently I've had so much fun trying new things-- many of which were inspired by Pinterest. Today's post is about D.I.Y. colored jeans. I tried this for myself after finding this gem. I LOVED this cute girl's blog post, but I decided to post about my own experience with it for you all because I did mine a little different and it's good for anyone who doesn't have as much time and doesn't mind spending a little more for pants that already fit.

           So you want colored jeans huh? Here's what you have to do:

*Be willing to experiment. There's not always a guarantee of a perfect outcome, but that's the fun of it.
*Be confident! Colors are so fun, and even if you're nervous to wear a new color as a base, so was everyone else who started the trend!
*If you want it to be a cheap and easy D.I.Y. project, don't be bummed if it's not perfect quality--you're literally saving 40 or 50 dollars.
*If you try this, I want to see what you came up with! It's such a fun thing to do.

            I'm going to make this part simple: Watch.

                                       Gap: $60. Too poor for those. Sad face.

Trip to Wal-mart. $12. I can afford that. Sort of happier face. 

(I can't figure out how to rotate this sorry!) Hobby Lobby dye. $2. 'I hope this works' face. 

I read almost all of the comments on the girl's blog who originally did this, so this is what I decided I'd take a gamble on: 

*filled my washing machine for a SMALL load with HOT water  (it's a top-loader---Whether that matters or not I have no idea)

*added 1/4 c. salt (regular table salt)

*put the pants in

*ran machine for a small colored load (12 minutes--the package says to continuously stir for 15 min, but I was worried about them being too dark, and my colored setting is only 12 min. so that worked for me). 

* When the washing was done I took the pants out. They were kind of a bright green---not what I was hoping for, but I'd still wear them. However, I wasn't done with them yet, so my cute husband reminded me to be patient (love him :) 

*I washed the pants with WARM water, with the settings again set for a small load (12 min). I put a small amount of liquid detergent in (that's just what we use). I just put a regular amount for just washing a pair of pants like normal. 

*When that cycle was done, some of the excess dye had come out and my pants were the perfect mint green I wanted (they have more green in them than the girl's pants in her post---something I was hoping for because I like green). 

*I let my pants hang dry, away from the SUN and NOT in the dryer. 

$14 Mint jeans. Happy face! 

If you love them, that's great, if you hate them, that's fine! But here's what I did and I hope you like it!

*note: aside from actually running a cycle in my wash machine instead of stirring my pants continuously for 15 min., I just followed the directions on the Tulip brand dye package. I wrote them out though just to be thorough. :)
Let me know if you have questions or comments! Feel free to pin this or anything you see on my blog onto Pinterest if you like it! I want to get more followers for more ideas and input!

xoxo,
Kelsey :)

Spring!

              Hello all! It has been a while since I last wrote! So spring and summer are in the air and I am so excited! I'm not a winter girl AT ALL (I mean, come on, I married a Hawaiian!). Anyway, I only have time for a quick post right now---my poor computer has an evil nasty virus so my cute grandma is letting me use her laptop for a little. Recently I have done LOTS of spring crafts, treats, etc. and I want to share! Here is a small genius idea that we got from Taylor's sister. We (Taylor) were making a dessert that used Cool Whip and we had some extra so Tara suggested we make this:

                  It is soooooooooooo good! Can't say it's the healthiest considering it's mostly Cool Whip, but hey, I'm no advocate for anorexia or eating disorders, so I say EAT IT! I've eaten it with apples and oranges and I like it best with apples. But literally all you do is mix some yogurt with some Cool Whip and there you go! We've only tried it with strawberry yogurt so far, but I'm sure others would work, too! Taylor and I are off to California and Hawaii for a little over a month (wahoooooo!) next week so I am going to try to get all my blogging of ideas you'll hopefully love done by then. Stay tuned for tips on how to make a cute changeable background dry-erase board, D. I. Y. colored jeans, a "sock bun" minus the dirty laundry, and a few other fun spring things!

I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feel so bad

                He is one of my favorite things. Seriously guys, look how handsome he is!

You may be wondering about this title of this post. If you don't recognize it, it's from the Sound of Music when she sings the "Favorite Things" songs to the kids during the rainstorm. Have you ever realized how random that song is? Brown paper packages wrapped up in string....Hey, everyone's got their own 'thing' that makes them happy. You enjoy those brown packages, Julie Andrews.

Anyway, today is day two of being all but a talking vegetable for me, and I'm having a hard time with it considering it's two weeks before finals and I'm missing school. Don't worry, I'll explain: I've struggled with back problems because of dance for about two years now. My dad's side of the family has seen this a lot, so I guess I just inherited it. My back has been doing progressively better over time, but this week in particular it hasn't been doing so well. To make an extremely long story short, yesterday my back began to have muscle spasms, causing me to collapse to the floor multiple times (aka any time I tried to walk or stand straight up), and leaving me unable to stand, walk, or do practically anything by myself. Luckily, I have the cutest husband ever who has been taking good care of me...which is what this blog post is really about--Taylor...and the day that I married him. Which is one of my favorite things.

On March 13th I received my endowments, which is an essential ordinance in The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and it is necessary to be done before you get married in the temple, which is where Taylor and I got married. I can't say much about the endowment session, not because it is secret, but because it is sacred. However, I absolutely loved it, and it made me even more excited to marry Taylor in the Provo temple :).

On the night of March 14th, we had a "rehearsal dinner" with our families and the bridal party. It was super fun to hear Madie, my made of honor, Josh, Taylor's best man, and our parents speak. Taylor and I also spoke of our experience dating each other and of our ultimate decision to marry each other. Unfortunately, I didn't get to bed super early because I wanted to get anything and everything that would/could cause me stress the next day finished before I went to bed. However, it was the night before my wedding, who can really sleep that night anyway?

On March 15th, 2012 I woke up at 5: 40 am, and my amazing maid of honor, Madie, picked me up at 6am so that we could grab breakfast at Einstein bagels (you have to try their breakfast sandwiches!) and then be in A.F. by 7 for me to get my hair and makeup done.


The rest of the day went exactly as planned and it was perfect. I know that a lot of people say their wedding day was perfect.....aside from this, that, or the other. However, literally nothing went wrong on our wedding day. The days leading up to it were not so enjoyable because of school, stress, etc., so I felt like we deserved the perfect day. The weather, by the way, was AMAZING. I even noticed a small sunburn later that day that I'd gotten just from taking pictures outside. I have to give credit to my mom, the busiest person in the world, for helping my day to be perfect. She even last minute surprised me with getting an ice sculpture for our reception! All of our families and friends were so supportive and helpful. I'll never be able to thank them all enough. Now, enough of the talking, here's some photos of our wedding day (all photo rights go to Elizabeth Taylor Frandsen):

                                                    Guys, look at that blue sky:

This bouquet was SOOOO heavy. But I loved it! 

Our bridal party was SO much fun. 

Don't worry, we had practiced this dip in advance, just so we could get a cute dip picture. 

I had never been a huge yellow gold fan until my sister Nicole got a yellow gold wedding ring. I love it so much now it was one of my colors! 

I loved my wedding shoes. I also bought them before we were officially engaged. I had to just watch them sit in my closet for months until I could finally wear them! 

I wanted a very girly wedding, which I was able to do very well with with the bridesmaids attire. I wanted them to all have the same dress, but to wear whatever gold shoes and jewelry they wanted to so that they could show a little personality. 

As I mentioned before, I wanted to go all out--sparkles, bows, etc. So when my florist suggest a triple bow bouquet for the bridesmaids I did not hesitate. 

All of the bridesmaids had a sash with a cute rhinestone/pearl flower on the front, and it was tied in a bow in the back. I also wrote a message on the bottom of each of their shoes (thanks, Pinterest!)

Again, with the girliness. When I found this ivory tulle-tiered dresses with the gold sequins on top, I just couldn't say no. By the way, Costco has AWESOME little girl dresses. Taylor's family did a great job finding the cute pink cardigans and pink sparkle bow shoes for the girls. 

Nicole wasn't quite feeling going all out being a bridesmaid since she's married, so I found this cute lace dress at Downeast. I had her wear the same sashes as the bridesmaids, and put this cute "belt" on top to match with the girly theme. P.s. the "belt" was originally a necklace. 

Our bridal party was sneaky and put together a fun dance for us using my favorite song (yes, one was a Backstreet Boys song). 

I tried to add detail to everything, so I used every girly, cute thing I could find. 

Brown Brothers Catering---amazing! I made sure to have people sneak me these drinks and some food while we greeted people in line. 

My dad passed away almost five years ago. I decided to dance with his dad, my grandpa Nielsen, in his place. It was hard to not have him there physically, but I know for sure that he was there in spirit. 

Taylor has the sweetest mom ever. I'm glad he got to share a dance with her on our wedding day. 

(look how cute my mom is in the corner) I know a lot of people think having a little fun while feeding each other wedding cake is tacky, and that's fine. But personally, I don't think we look tacky at all! We enjoyed it.

I absolutely love this photo of my beautiful mom and cute sister. 

 The best part about our wedding day was that it was just the beginning of awesome days. Sure, I looked a lot better on that day than I do today (rocking the "mowgli" look while I sit like a vegetable), but my love for Taylor has only grown since that day 20 days ago. So today and yesterday have been rough, but that's why "I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feel so bad". And that's all.

Quit hatin' on the love

Hello all,

First of all, Happy Valentine's Day! So today after seeing so many anti-love/Valentine's Day posts on FB, and after being SOOOO tempted to give a rebuttal on those people's, I have decided to write more appropriately and less controversially, on my own blog, about why Valentine's Day is not "single awareness day". Yes, you may say, "well of course you think that--you're engaged." Well what I say to that is, I have been engaged for only 3 months (as of yesterday :), not my whole life, and I have never had a problem with Valentine's day. So here's what I have to say (because it's my blog, so I can):

FB Status: Happy Single Awareness Day!
Rebuttal: Valentine's Day is NOT all about couples. It's about LOVE. Last I heard, you don't have to only love your boyfriend, girlfriend, fiance, husband, wife, or make-out buddy. You can love your family and friends (duh). Seriously. I've had my share of lonely Valentine's Day, but I've always enjoyed the holiday. You have an excuse to eat candy, treats, make cute notes, and wear pink (if you like. it happens to be my favorite color :). Instead of thinking about how you don't have a boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever, why don't you take a treat to that cute boy or girl in your ward just for fun, have a girls night, have a guys night, whatever. It's a holiday--enjoy it. I'm not trying to be insensitive, I just want to help people see another side to this. I've had so much fun on Valentine's day with my friends in past years, even when I didn't have a significant other. Try it. It's fun.

FB Status: My guess is if you have to go big on this day...you are failing 364 days of the year....
Rebuttal: There is nothing wrong with having a day set aside specifically for showing love for those whom you love. I read my school newspaper, The Daily Universe, today, and so many people talked about how you shouldn't have to only show love today. People, did anyone ever say that you can only show love on this day? I wasn't present if that did happen. People are so busy and have so much going on in life that I think it's great we have a day set aside especially for those whom we love. It's like birthdays, for example. Should we not celebrate birthdays because we should just ALWAYS be celebrating everyone's existence? No, birthdays, like Valentine's Day, are a time for us to pay special attention to that one person. Does that mean we treat them like we don't give a crap that they came into the world on all other 364 days of the year? No. So that's what I think. I see people doing nice things and showing love for friends, family, significant others, etc., all year round. Do they do as extravagant things all those times, maybe not. However, it's nice to have an excuse to do something a little extra special for those we love.

FB status: This isn't the real holiday. It's actually the eve of the holiday when all the candy is half-off.
Rebuttal: Okay, nothing is really that wrong with this. But all I have to say is, it's not ALL about the treats. Go out and love people! Haha :)

Okay, so hopefully I don't seem like too much of a hater. But I just see people, such as my mom, who don't have a significant other here to celebrate with (my dad's passed away), who still are positive on this fourteenth day of February. Those people don't mope on  Facebook about how bad today is, they just love and are grateful for those they have. They don't hate people who do happen to have a "significant" other that they choose to celebrate today with. All I've gotta say is, for the love people. For the love....go love people. Don't hate today.

And on that note I need to mention my future husband, Taylor. He's the best. He puts a smile on my face and is always trying to make me happy. Love him to death! We are getting married in 30 days :) And even if we weren't, I still wouldn't hate Valentine's Day.