Happy 18th Birthday to Paisley!


The big Election Day has arrived! I was so busy all day with work and running around, kicking myself for not just sending in my ballot. By evening, I was feeling a bit antsy that the day would get away from me and my vote wouldn't be counted. I asked Eli if he'd go with me- It's his FIRST year to get to vote in a major election! We grabbed our ballots and headed to Provo Library. It was very crowded with people on foot and car. We got in the drop off line. I marveled that this was likely the state of every city in the US right then. It was neat to see, and I'm glad I had Eli with me!

The time has zipped by, and Paisley's flight is coming in today! I got her room all spruced and vacuumed for her arrival. (Even though she had it very tidy before she left.)

Paisley arrived back just in time to celebrate her big 18th Birthday!

I can't even believe this little pip-squeak is already 18! It really can't be right!

She had planned a fun day with friends and cousins to do some shopping up at Fashion Place Mall, dinner, and then come back to our house for cake, drinks and treats. I was happy to make all of her dreams come true.

I'm glad she has such fun people to celebrate with!

Let me do a proper bathroom update. Here are pictures of the before, and what I am wanting to change. It's fine, it's just blah. I wanted to make it feel rich and fab.

I really loved the deep wine berry color I painted the cabinets- it's so pretty! I just let things get away from me without a real plan from there. Here is what it is started to morph into:

When I looked at the before pictures and how bright and clean it looked, I realized what I was doing looked like I was working backwards. It looked like the before - like when it was dark and heavy. I was listening to a dumb book, the bathroom felt dark, I realized when I was putting on my makeup I could barely see what I was doing! And those velvet curtains were giving me Rendstrom Playhouse vibes. Not. Good.
I had to sand down all the walls. I used the electric sander and went over everything. Jon came home and asked- What happened??? He could NOT believe what I was doing. I mean, he never has much of an opinion, but he was trying to bear with me with the orange grove/ small town playhouse vibes while admittedly not getting it. But he was baffled when I told him I was re-doing everything. I had to!

I painted all of the walls white- including the ceiling back to white. I re-sprayed the ceiling vent. It already felt like I could breath again! I changed all of my bulbs to a whiter kelvin. I could see!

I decided to go for my other idea- Stripes! I love stripes. Stripes take a long time.

It was amazing how as soon as I had the walls taped off, they felt so tall.

I hate to leave you hanging there, but this really was weeks in progress. You have to re-paint over the tape with each stripe to get a crisp line. And there were plenty of days that I did not have time to work on it. I was so ready for this project to be done already, but it really was a labor of love.

On to the next even BIGGER project!
These are the last photos you will see of our backyard as we know it.