My Projects...

These last few months I have started several "home decorating" projects. Some have been significantly easier than others but still they have all turned into really good learning opportunities.... more than anything they have helped reaffirm my original belief that I should look for a career as an eternal college student (You think I have kidding but I'm not).

While we were living in Texas we lived with my wonderful grandparents. I needed a project to keep myself occupied (let's be realistic I haven't had free time in 3 years and I don't really have hobbies anymore) and my grandmother suggested I make a quilt. At first I thought "Yeah right that is going to be boring" but over time I learned that it is actually significantly less boring than I orignally anticipated and in some ways actually quite rewarding. I can't say that I enjoyed the entire process because well that would be a lie but I did really enjoy buying the fabric and... okay that is really it but I did learn a lot. So here are two of the 4 finished quilts that I created. Creating these quilts encouraged me to try sewing/gluing other things and put the idea in my head that I should redecorate our 500 sq foot apartment. I really just want to go to Ikea and have them do it for me but I thought I would start slowly in the living room. So far I have made some improvements, some are more finished than others (dont worry the picture frames will be better when I put up the additional frames hidden on the floor) and have run into a few dilemmas (how to hang curtains without drilling holes in the wall or a curtain rod) but all in all I think that I am making a bit of progress. I thought it was finally time to post some of what I have been up to.


OUr couch with some new pillows a quilt and in a new location... the rest of the room was messy so all you get to see is the couch.



My pillow, there is funny story that goes along with this, well a story at least. I decided I wanted to make 4 additional couch pillows (I have only gotten around to making 2) but I didnt have a pattern. So I decided the best way to do this project was trial and error, turns out it took THREE hours to make this one pillow, the second took about 10 minutes. I am guessing that 3 and 4 will take 30 minutes total! Anyway I made this pillow without a pattern, amazing!


Our pictures, I thought this was an improvement over the previous "shrine to me" that hung here. rest assured that I do understand symmetry, there are 3 frames missing, I didnt think it would be fun to hang empty frames... updates to come later



This board is in our kitchen. I thought it would be more fun than it actually is but I guess the good thing is that it will be less cluttered than our original board.



I thought it was important to bring more red into the room, so this is the board right above my desk, it turns out when I am not in school I dont have a lot to post on it but it is very red!




This was my second quilt... I had a few serious difficulties with it, first I chose ugly fabric and took it apart, then I didnt like the pattern and took it apart... and now well not sure what is wrong now but I will find something. I know the quilts look long a skinny, but they are folded into thirds, dont worry I actually worked faster than it looks



This was my first quilt ever, I do have to say that it turned out well despite my complete inability to sew, cut or even walk in a straight line.

1232.23 miles the picture version

Some wonderful pictures of our trek across Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah




Leaving Dallas, turning onto our first little highway


Flat Texas


The last Whataburger we saw... I sadly love Whataburger now, who knew just mustard would be so good.


More Texas...


Texas... I am not sure where this is but I think it is west of Amarillo, by the way we drove straight into the storm, it turned out to be snowing in New Mexico... yeah



New Mexico the first night... it snows there. I didnt know it snowed there.



New Mexico somewhere



Discussing wheither or not we should go to Four Corners, we decided not to.


The first mountians we saw (well at least that I saw) in 3 months!


Moab... well maybe this is like an hour before Moab, not really sure since everything ran together


Our apartment 20 minutes after we arrived home, it looks like a tornado went through, I wonder if there were sirens?


I hope that you all enjoyed our trip... let me just tell you it was better to look at the pictures than actually drive it...

1232.23 miles later...

We are finally home! I never thought I would miss Provo so much but I almost cried when I saw the sign for BYU and the Y on the mountain. Oh well give me a few weeks I won't be quite so fond of it here.

So our trip.... we made it back from Utah in TWO cars. For those of you familiar with my driving situation you should be shocked and proud of me, not only did I survive rush hour traffic in Dallas for three months without dying of a heart attack but I also managed to drive all the way back to Utah from Texas. I think that learning to drive stick shift has been an even bigger accomplishment for me than graduating from BYU... so yeah we survived my driving without too many problems. Halfway through our wonderful driving adventure I came to the conclusion that engaged couples should have to make a 1000 mile drive in seperate cars before they are allowed to get married. I think this would be a great test, you get to see the other person stressed, angry etc (all of their finest moments that you need to know about before you tie the knot). Anyway Brian was very patient with my slow driving and inability to follow closely behind, it was touch and go there for awhile but we made it home safe and sound.

In case you guys needed a red update I thought I would let you know that I have chosen to go with bright red in our living room, I am still not sure how I feel about it but I seem to be drawn to it so I guess that is what we are going with. I bought some cute fabric at Ikea of all places and I am ready to get started with this project... as soon as I finish unpacking and start reorganixing the apartment. I think that I would much rather be in school taking finals than have to reorganize our closet... okay yeah I eally would rather that. Watch for some fun updates on the project!

On a very exciting note I turned in all my internship papers and I can finally graduate!!!!!!

Happy Valley Here We Come!

We are headed home tomorrow! Who would have ever thought that I would have missed Utah. Oh well I am so excited to see the Y on the mountain, walk everywhere and shop at the junky, overcrowded and understocked Orem Walmart! We are almost all packed (we are taking a break to watch the Office) and we are headed out in the morning. Fun stuff. I am not excited about the 1232.23 mile drive... but maybe if I dont think too much about it then it will seem shorter.

On a happy note Brian and his BYU team won the Deliotte National Case Study Competition! Congratulations!

On another happy note I will be graduating from college in a week and a half... can you even believe it! College has been an interesting experience for me, I have learned a lot including that it is important to actually "GO" to college (it took me awhile to get that one).

More news to come about our trip home... hopefully I will remember to take some thrilling pictures!

Choosing a shade of red... a serious issue

So dear family and friends, I have decided once again to turn to the internet to solve my problems. I have decided to redecorate our tiny apartment. We are obviously keeping the couch and the table so really all i am changing are the pillows, picture frames and any additional accents. I am magnetically attracted to red (in case you have never been to my apartment it becomes pretty obvious how much I like it right as you walk in). I know I want to use red but still not sure if I want dark red (more "country" red) with cream or ivory or bright red with true white. If any of you guys have suggestions I would appreciate it. I asked Brian but his answer was "whatever you like is good" usually a great answer but not so much in this situation. So I need some ideas, tips, anything to keep me from aimlessly wandering the aisles of JoAnns, Target, Pier 1 and Hobby Lobby.

We are heading home on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay, this red situation might just be something to distract me from thinking about the 20 hour drive I have ahead of me. But seriously any decorating ideas or suggestions about a shade of red would be much appreciated!

Posting Pictures

Well I finally figured out how to post pictures on this! Now all I need to do is find the camera and take some pictures. So for the two of you guys that actually look at this blog there are pictures to come in the "near" future. Exciting stuff!

Homeward Bound

We are heading home to Provo in just a few days now! I can't believe that it is time for us to head out already. We have had a fantastic time here in Texas. We found a perfect house (Brian hasnt seen it, and it is in the middle of nowhere, but it is nice) and we got a job!!!!!!!!!!!!! It looks like we will be making Dallas our permanent home beginning summer 2009.

We are excited to head back to Utah just in time for graduation! I never thought that I would make it to graduation, it seemed so far away, but turns out I will be Ashley Suker B.S in less than a month now. We are expecting company for graduation, three generations of BYU graduates.

On and exciting note we will both be starting graduate school full time this coming fall. Brian will continue to work on his MAcc and I will be starting my MPH. I still cannot believe that after everything BYU has let me in for yet a second time... well i guess we will see about that.

After reading a friend's blog i decided that I really hadn't been that informative about our time in texas, and let's face the facts I am not good at picking up the phone and calling friends or family members... so I guess you all get to read about it on the internet.

We came to Texas in January to intern. It has been... an experience... I cant say if it has been bad or good, the jury is still out on that one but at least it has been eye opening.
I have learned a lot in our short time here including:
-how to drive a stick shift- I know sad it took me this long but in reality I have no hand eye coordination so you can see how the first few tries went
-no one in Texas cares about turning signals
-no one in Texas can read the word YEILD, might as well be in chinese they just dont care
-$10 is not an insane amount to pay for dinner for two adults
-tornado warnings are meaningless, there are no actual tornadoes (just let me think this)
-"medium rare" means cold in the middle (i still dont think this is quite right)
-busy season is actually BUSY

We survived Texas! Brian survived working until midnight or later on multiple occasions, his first business trip out of town for more than one night (well I guess that was more me), and commuting. I survived working in social services, not seeing Brian for more than 20 minutes a day, and driving a manual transmission on the freeway. I think after all that I am ready to head back to Happy Valley and enjoy our life as struggling college students for one more year (I am not kidding I am excited to go back to that).