Looking good...

I know Crystal already blogged about this on her photography blog (calartistry.blogspot.com) but I just wanted to put in my two cents. I had a great time the other day when I met for lunch at the Riparian Reserve in Gilbert with Mom, Crystal (my sister) and the kids. Eager to practice her photography skills, Crystal had requested that I be her "model" for a few outdoor portraits. I figured that I was blessed with beauty for a reason and it would be a sin to hide my talents from the world so I obliged ;-)
We had a really good time with the photo shoot and I tried to keep my laughter to a minimum while she arranged my poses. I think the best part of it was just being around Crystal. I've always felt a special closeness to her being that she is only about a year 1/2 younger than me. I've always admired her desire to develop her talents whether musical or some other artistic endeavor.



Anyway, here are some of the other pics:

This was decidedly the best of the shoot.This one was just funny. As you can see, it didn't turn out how we had planned but the idea was cool anyway.

My sister is always looking for willing victims...I mean individuals looking to assist her in her continued artistic development. Just let me know if you're interested and I'll get you in touch with her or check out calartistry.blogspot.com sometime.

So done...

I finally finished!!! I got everything up in the bathroom and it's now functional--not to mention stylin'! I'd like to take this moment to thank my dad for all of his expert advice directly related to this project and all of the skills he's given me throughout my life with or without even knowing it! I also really appreciate Justin's (my roommate) patience as he's been dealing with dust and debris for a solid three months now. Poor guy! I know he's happy to have his own space again. As you can see, I successfully mounted the sink on the wall and it's pretty darn sturdy thanks to some good IKEA mounts, solid backing and liquid nails LOL.
Here are some more pics:

I'm pretty happy with the way the shower turned out. The dark grout really toned down the blue while preserving the great reflective color of the glass mosaic tiles. Also, I got the tub pretty dirty from washing grout sponges and I was worried I wouldn't get the stains out but I had a geneous idea...After scrubbing forever with a brush, I used a 200 grit sanding block and some Comet to gently remove the stains. It worked like a charm and the tub is shiny white porcelain again!
The storage compartment in the wall proved convenient. As you can see, it has lots of room for all of Justins toiletries even if he does have more product than the average American girl ;-)I went with a staggered tile pattern for two reasons: 1. I like the way it looks, and 2. the bathroom is so out of square that a traditional pattern would have made the wacky angles look even more obvious. Oh, and the toilet has one effective, efficient flush...I've tried it on some heavy-duty jobs already! J/K
It's nice to be done with this project. I had a good time and learned a bunch but let's just say I'm not quite ready to move on to the next bathroom...that will have to wait :-)

Wedding Day!

It's official...Jacob and Joni are now married! It was an amazing sight to see how happy they both were on their special day yesterday. It was so nice to see so much of our family make it out and we had a great time. Joni's family is amazing too...I really enjoyed meeting them!
Congrats Jacob and Joni!!!

Cancún...

So, I had four days off due to some schedule changes at work. As I contemplated all of the many things I could do with this little break and I decided to go to expedia.com to see if there were any travel deals. I'm soooo glad I did! I found an amazing deal on an all-inclusive hotel package in Cancún and it was AMAZING! It was beautiful weather and the food was fabulous!
I went with my friend Brent because it was his birthday and he had time. It was a really fun trip and I would highly recommend Cancún as a great place to escape the daily grind :-) Here are some pics:

They had a DJ by the pool so we were all dancing to Rihanna "Live Your Life" in the middle of the day! It was really fun! Nobody cared how ridiculous they looked...or maybe I'm speaking for myself!
Brent...stuffing his face...we did a lot of this :-) For some reason they used wine glasses for the water...idk why but it felt classy LOL
I think Cancún is obsessed with limbo...I've never been involved in so many limbo competitions in my life! I hate limbo because I'm so freakin' tall. Brent is a little guy so he's a natural LOLI blend right in :-)

New Year's Day!

Happy 2009!

So, yesterday I got to go out with Justin and our friend Michael on his quads! We went to a place just west of Lake Pleasant. It was a great time and I even got some air. I love spending New Year's Day outdoors!
Oh, it was cool too because I got to stop by Mom & Dad's house for dinner since they are out in the West Valley now. I have a feeling 2009 is gonna be an amazing year!