Memorial Day 2015

it was a pretty chill day which was great! we slept in with Olivia and got ready for the day. we went over to my parents house to celebrate. my dad grilled up some burgers and hot dogs and we had ourselves a nice little BBQ. the rest of the day was spent hanging out, sharing stories, and of course lots of games!! my dad loves games, which i actually enjoy...others not so much haha. we had a corn hole tournament (it's like his new thing with us kids) and a game of Life. i think only 3 of them actually finished the game, idk what that exactly says about ourselves haha.
i am so grateful for the freedoms that we have and that i get to be able to share that with my own family. thank you to all that have served fighting for this beautiful country. jeff and i have some pretty important people that have fought for this country. and we love and miss them.
home of the free because of the brave <3.

Boise Heart Art

a few months ago i fell in love with this Idaho shaped cutting board {yup, it's a cutting board}, & i just had to have it. as if we already don't have enough from the wedding haha. i have one that i am using as a tray, few i never use, & another one sits on our table for decoration. but this one was obviously for a craft that i had been wanting to do! everyone sees those pinterest heart state signs. some are printable, some are the reverse of mine {meaning they go away from the heart to the border}, & so many others! i wanted to try something my way, & i am pretty happy with how it turned out!! the only thing i am having trouble with is hanging it. but don't worry i have a trick up my sleeve & i will tell you later! so this is my take on the whole lovey dovey sign trend hitting the internet lately!! I <3 BOISE, IDAHO!

 honestly i don't even know why you would want a cutting board of Idaho to use in the kitchen. i love Idaho and all but not enough to eat off or cook with haha {you can find this one or other states at Bed Bath & Beyond}

 thankfully i still had all my paintbrushes & other things from when i was in Interior Design for college. save $$$

 i took an angled brush and free hand drew the heart with acrylic paint.

 half way through finishing the heard i decided that i wanted to throw in some gold glitter later on. that is why this big blob is behind. i wanted the glitter to pop out.

 the supplies. acrylic paint, elmers glue, nails, embroidery floss & glitter! duh, everything needs glitter

 i ended up not needing the rubber cement because i noticed the glitter i purchased came with glue. i'm and airhead.

 thus began the nailing process. it got a little tricky towards the end because there wasn't much room for your fingers to hold the nails.

 this part was actually fun! what i did was i started from the bottom nail and i wrapped it around and then continued to wrap around the next nail & back to the bottom. i would skip the one i just did and from the bottom nail i went to the next one and again wrapped it around. i did that to each nail using the bottom nail, then i went to the next nail doing it to all the others. while doing it i had to keep pushing the thread down so i would have enough room.

 i tied the last part to the beginning part of the string and then i cut off the excess.

& there you have it! all done! noting too fancy, but fun!!! all you need to do is pop in the movie Frozen & work away. it's a lot more fun when you can watch a kid movie haha. good luck!!

 



Boise Goodies, You Light Up My Life!

this past weekend the husband & i were able to drive up to BOISE! i was so excited to be back there, even if it was only for a couple of days. being in a small town can get to be kind of claustrophobic at times, so going to the city is a nice break!! also i get to shop around! and that's what i did :). first of all i love Target, like a lot. {they are actually the only place that carries my size in shoes...embarrassing. jeffery married a sasquatch!!} we had a gift card, so it was a given that we had to go there. in our little home, if you have been following along {if not you should!} i have been trying to make the small space seem more open and bright! some things that i have done to help achieve that is lighter colors, whites, space planning, adding a mirror/floor lamp & of course keeping it clean! but that's a whole different subject i will get into later haha. but there was corner that needed attention! to fix that, i purchased the cutest lamp!!! i love it. it's so simple, sleek, & modern. also i was having a hard time to figuring out what size of lamp was good to place on my end table {you can see the end table here}. but i found it! & it's amazing. another thing that it i like about the lamp is that it is, i guess you could say see through. haha idk. but it defiantly isn't bulky which is nice because it helps keep the space airy rather than crowded. if that makes sense!?

the last thing i was able to do was pick up some pictures! i believe every home should have some piece of art that they love. family pictures, canvas art, paintings, mirrors, shelves that hold books or pottery. either way fill your home with things that you love! that's what i have done & it has been fun to see how everything has turned out. but something that i was missing in our home was a picture of the temple. living far away from a temple has actually been harder than i thought. in Boise i was fortunate enough live about 15 minutes away. & in Salt Lake i lived right next door to it. i really did take it for granted. now that we have to drive either 45 min-2 hours i know how important it is to me. so the pictures that i was able to put into some frames were of the Twin Falls, Idaho Temple & a quote by Thomas S. Monson that i designed. Weird how some art that you really love & it means something to you can make a house a home.

 before

 after...so much better :)

this is what i was talking about...see through much?!

 even though the elephant is beach themed...i like it! so i kept it!! and that torn book i did on purpose haha so don't think i am this huge reader that destroys books. only for decoration ;)

 i spray painted this frame like right when we moved here & i couldn't just have it be empty. so i guess i decided a dream house seemed appropriate for the time being!

 an old doodle in need of a face lift!

 Twin Falls, Idaho Temple....muchhhhh better

 "choose your love. love you choice." -Thomas S. Monson

 by the way thank you everyone who has been keeping up with us! it's really cool to hear from you guys saying that you have. i didn't know people actually read this thing other than my mom & sister haha. so i think you are pretty cool :).

  

Anchor Cake Topper

the weekend is almost here! which means the Super Bowl is on SUNDAY! i love Super Bowl Sunday for many reasons...this year my Broncos are playing! oh and my QB is on that team :). bonus! and i am so excited for the commercials, they are always the best!! oh and the food, & lots of loud cheering, & being with my family! yeah, jeff thought it would be fun to be there this weekend for the big game! just to bug me tho, he is going for the Seahawks...he might have to find another place to sleep ;). good thing his family lives there too haha. anyways i am super pumped! and then the next week my old roommate Ashlee is cominggggggg! lots to be excited about it the life of julia ;).
with that aside, i have a new little project to share with you people of the interweb! when jeff & i were planning to get married i was on Pinterest & Etsy...as any other girl in the world! i was looking for anything anchor {my wedding was nautical & the anchors were a must duh. incase you haven't seen our wedding décor click here to get an idea}. i happened across this super cute anchor cake topper that i jusssst had to have! you have to check out her Etsy page, she has lots of cute wedding toppers.

 i couldn't get it out of my head & it was a must for the wedding. weird how you have to have everything for your wedding, when in reality it is only a piece of metal that is stabbed into the top of cake that you only get one bit of...just something to think about haha. but like i said, i fell in love with it & so i got it. the only thing that i didn't like, is that it was silver. easy fix. have your fiancé spray paint it gold. because again it has to be perfect!
my awesome sister in law made our cake & i loved it :). it was a simple thought, but she put in so much hard work into it! she's awesome. it was strawberry cake with lemon filling in the middle tier and the other two were lemon cake with strawberry whipped cream filling. it was delicious!

 

i loved everything about our wedding from the man i married, even to the topper of the cake. i couldn't have had a more perfect wedding. something that i wanted to do was to keep our topper & display it on our house to remember the day. thankfully i didn't have one of those toppers that was like a bride and groom kissing or something like that, because that would've been weird to just have in your house. especially with the thousands of wedding pictures that we already have. i try to make sure our house isn't like a museum of jeff & julia...it probably is tho. what i was able to do was just place it in a black frame, & now it rests on the wall above the couch. seriously the easiest DIY ever! cut of the wire that was in the cake & smash it into the frame. it is literally smashed in there, which is actually cool because it looks like its floating. go me! 





 

{click here to see the rest of the Holderness home}

i love it, i think it's kinda cool to have a piece of art in our house that was from our wedding. our little house is turning out so nice, & it has been fun to make little projects here & there. i look forward to owning our own home someday. dream come true! what are some of your little projects that you just love & have a cool story behind them?