The National

The National has been on play a lot at our house lately. There's just something about its moody, melodic vibe that makes it the perfect soundtrack to life, especially in this winter-about-to-turn-spring we've been experiencing lately (hurray!). I swear, sometimes certain songs make my soul just sing. You know how that goes? Like, the song comes on, and you find yourself getting a little teary just cause it makes you so happy? And you're thinking "this is ridiculous" but really you wouldn't change it for anything because "Jeez, this song is just so good!" Are you picking up what I am putting down? Cause man, does The National do to me sometimes. Hope you enjoy too, in that soul-singing sort of way. Here are a few other favorites of ours if that one up there doesn't get you.

Weekend recap + printables

 

 

I spent the first part of the weekend at the St. Regis Deer Valley for one last hurrah with my girlfriends before two of them go off and get married. My friend Jules (wearing the paint-splattered shirt up there) was keen to make the weekend extra special, so we brought decorations along to spice up the room, and I was put in charge of personalizing eats and drinks for the weekend. I opted to make personalized water bottle labels (you better believe those babies read "Let your thirst for marriage be quenched") since none of us really love soda, and I made little cupcake topers that read "isn't life sweet?" for our desserts. When it comes to decorations for a girls weekend, I'm all for the cheesier the better. After a dinner out, as girls do, we cozied up in our beds in our swanky hotel room and chatted the night and morning away about all things marriage and love (cause, really, what else would we do?).

After girls weekend wrapped up Saturday afternoon, Ty and I took a walk up the canyon with Hank to enjoy the 50-degree weather (!). Then just lounged around the remainder of the weekend, which was highly welcome in my book. Don't you just love loungy Sundays? PS, I indeed did make this soup, and it was super tasty.

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE PRINTABLE WATER BOTTLE LABEL HERE -- IT FITS A 1L FIJI WATER BOTTLE
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE PRINTABLE CUPCAKE TOPPER CIRCLES HERE -- THERE ARE A FRONT AND A BACK THAT YOU SANDWICH A TOOTHPICK BETWEEN 

ST. REGIS PHOTOS COURTESY OF JULIA SMITH

Happy weekend

Friday is here again! Such great news. This week was packed full for me, but it still managed to fly by. Ty and I drove up to SLC at least once every day, so I am looking forward to less time in the car next week. Tonight Ty and I are parting ways and I am heading up to Park City for a girls weekend; a couple of my favorite ladies are getting married, so we thought we would celebrate with a weekend away. We are planning on getting some fantastic pizza at Maxwell's (have you tried it? It's honestly DELICIOUS) and spending a fair amount of time in the hotel hot tub. Hope you have something great planned too! Here are a few links to start off your weekend.

My brother guest posted over on Stay At Home Paranoid Mom this week about how his family lives sans car with multiple family bikes. He's seriously my hero.
The "I ♥ YOU" sign is still up in our house cause we just aren't ready to take it down yet.
Thanks for the sweet mention this week, Mara. It made my week.
5 stylish home theaters. #3 is my favorite.
Paper Art.
I'm going be making this Rainbow Soup for dinner on Sunday.

A Joy

You may not know this, but it is a well known fact in my family that my arrival as the last child was a bit of a surprise. A complete surprise in fact. "But a good one nonetheless," is what I always like to point out whenever it comes up. My parents were done having kids after my older sister Kerstin was born; but little did they know I was still in the works somewhere. And 8 months after my mom's 39th birthday I entered the Schmidt family -- all sans hair and big eared (and by C-section nonetheless). Ta-dah! And while I was visiting with my family the other week, my mom and I were chatting about my coming so unexpectedly into the family when I made my usual comment about how she has to be "so glad I came though, right?" ::wink wink:: Being my sweet mom, she stopped what she was doing, turned to me, and in her sweetest most sincere momma voice replied that she was. "Because you are a joy," she said. And as that little, kind compliment floated across the room and wriggled its way into my heart it made me feel just about like a million bucks. A joy. I can't think of anything else I would rather be called, especially by my sweet momma. I'm so lucky to have her, and when I grow up I hope to be as thoughtful and selfless as she is.

Wye Oak - Civilian

A few weeks ago, Ty was doing quite a bit of guitar playing while we were at home during the evenings. Which, in turn, meant I was doing a fair amount of singing (Ty is the great guitar player in our home), and this is one of the songs we were often playing together (such a pretty song in my opinion). Since then, our schedules have gotten a bit crazier so less guitar has been played, but we are both hoping that changes soon since I love having his strumming ringing throughout the house; it just makes it feel so much more homey, you know? If you're in a listening mood, he was also keen on playing quite a bit of this, this and this too. And when we start back up we wanna learn this.

Snow day in SLC

We spent Saturday as expected, trudging through the stormy streets of downtown Salt Lake as we ate lunch at Cafe Molise, visited with friends and shopped to our little foodie-hearts content at Trader Joe's. The snow really doesn't bother me as long as I'm equipped with my down jacket (I have the shorter version of this guy) -- I swear they are the magic of all magic coats. I was fully equipped on Saturday, toasty as a marshmallow, so no worries there. And I was sure to wear my Ty-thinks-they-are-ugly-but-they-are-my-best-snow-boots boots, so I was solid. My visiting sister on the other hand, who is sadly not pictured, was wearing cotton tennis shoes and a light-weight cotton jacket (she explained she was trying to pack light). Poor little lady. There was no complaining out of her though -- what a trooper. And no car accidents; I would chalk that up to a great day.

As for the snow in these parts, it seemed to snow forever on Saturday, but come Sunday it was all gone (insert total confusion). I'm not sure how that happened, but Hank and I took a hike  in the hills behind the house sans snowshoes, and about half of the ground we covered didn't have snow at all. Even the large, accumulated piles around the neighborhood have all but disappeared. Unthinkable. But kinda great if we are being honest. Bring on spring, I say. 

And I will say one sentence about Life Of Pi -- not as good as the book, but visually stimulating and the CG tiger was fantastic. And that was that.

Happy weekend!

Maybe it was the long weekend that extended into this week, or maybe time is just flying now a days, but I can't believe it's Friday already. I swear this week barely existed at all. We're expecting quite a bit of snow in these parts over the next few days, but Ty and I are still planning to venture out this weekend to see Life of Pi (we have both read the book, so we are anxious to see how the film lives up -- and ends! oh my goodness, what will they do with that?) as well as spend some time with my sister while she is in town; we are envisioning a trip to IKEA, a lunch out and a stellar trip to the still-fairly-new Trader Joe's. What do you think? Sound like a good weekend? I think so too. I love me a good bum around town and watching movies weekend.

And now here are a few links to kick off your weekend.

I think this non-traditional wedding dress is a bit stunning. What do you think?
Could you eat this much frosting?
I want to paint the insides of the front and garage doors this color.
I want to rid myself of bookshelves in the guest bedroom and store the books on the upper ledge instead. And I think these inexpensive storage baskets are just the ticket.
Ty needs to build us a couple of these for us.
Garance gives me inspiration for wearing my man shoes in the spring.