Lucy & Baptism Ideas

So this is Lucy just a few days after her eighth birthday. I snapped these shots of her in our backyard a few weeks before her baptism in October. She is wearing my Grandma Orchard's vintage pearls. Cool right????

In case you aren't familiar with our culture, a baptism is the Mormon equivalent of a Jewish Bar Mitzvah, or a Catholic First Communion. It is the recognition that the child is now old enough to distinguish between right and wrong, and they are starting with a clean slate. It's also the chance to hold a big party!

I searched far and wide for the perfect dress, (cuz all you girls know it's ALWAYS about the dress). I finally found some really great choices at J. Crew (Crewcuts is their awesome kids line). I ordered the dress online, and the second it arrived we ran in and opened the package. It was beautifully packaged, hanging on a wooden hanger, and inside this perfect miniature garment bag. The dress is cream shantung silk, and we tried it on immediately. The dress is the sweetest little shape, with a side zipper. We zipped her in and then stood back to have our "TA-DAH" moment..... but IT LOOKED AWFUL!!! The dress was sort of bunchy, and gaping in strange places. I could not believe it! That dress was so spendy, and it had come in such a nice package. I have to be honest, it was a good life lesson. Remember this Lucy, sometimes something beautiful and shiny on the outside is really a big dud on the inside.....but I digress.

At this point we only had a few weeks until the baptism, and it had taken me several weeks to find this dress. It was also much too late in the game to be able to have a dress made, so I would HAVE to find something else off the rack.

I didn't return the dress immediately, because I just wasn't sure what to do. As the days wore on, I knew I had to have Lucy's picture taken so that I would have something to send out in the invitation. I decided to use the J. Crew dress for the pictures, and I figured I could just pin it up in the back to look decent for the pictures, then I could return it. Well, we tried on the dress again, and this time as soon as we zipped it up I gasped. The dress was BEAUTIFUL!!! What in the world could have happened? I guess trying on the dress BACKWARDS the first time was not such a good idea!?*!?!

I made Lucy's headband with the plain plastic kind you find at the craft store. I wrapped fabric around the whole thing, then hot glue-gunned the ends. Someday I will post a tutorial for making the fabric flowers for the top.

I glued in tulle netting and ribbon, and then glued the flowers and pearl embellishments to the top.

All the decorations, invitations, and Lucy's outfit coordinated with our cream and aqua color scheme. Her sweater and shoes came from Nordstrom.

All the photos were different prints (from Costco of course) of the shots I had taken in the backyard.

I made the frames out of the $1.00 kind from Michael's that are unfinished. I decoupaged different scrapbook papers and embellishments, so that each frame was unique.

(All in keeping with the color scheme of course).

It was October, so there were lots of white pumpkins around. (That seems strangely inappropriate now). I think anything white would be pretty in the hurricane though.

I wish I had pictures of the food. I served several varieties of soup, salads, desserts, etc. The big crowd pleaser though, had to be the gourmet grilled cheese. I am not sure if I would attempt that again for that large of a crowd, because it felt like I spent the whole party flipping grilled cheese, (hence the reason I have no pictures) but they were DE-LISH! Even my little 91 year old granny ate like three sandwiches!

Here's how you make em':

• really good loaf of pre-sliced (thin) sourdough bread


• 3 varieties of white and yellow cheese-your favorites, but gourmet like Gouda, swiss, etc., mixed in with cheddar are best


• enough butter on the outside of the bread to get a good crunch

I really like the wide loaves of sourdough, so once the sandwiches are grilled, I cut them in half, and serve them on a platter. These go so fast the platter is literally never full.

Just FYI, having a large flat cook-top helps too.

And there you have it. It was a really great special day. And I just have to say (since this is also my journal), my favorite part of the whole day was in the dressing room, when Lucy came out of the water, and just her and I were in the dressing room getting her ready. I have never been so honored to be her Mom.
I love you Lucy Lu!

Renovation Complete

The work is finally complete on our renovation across the street.
I promise to put up the "before" pictures in the next few days.

It always seems that the real "OO la la" comes from seeing the before and after.

The granite turned out really beautiful.

The floors are Pre-finished Brazilian Cherry Hardwood.

New Hall Bath. We converted one giant out-of-date bathroom into a new hall bath, and en-suite bath for the master bedroom.

Master bedroom. The color in the photo is "off". The carpet in person actually looks much nicer with the paint than this photo shows. (And it doesn't look pink.)

Looking into the new master bath. Again, the color in the photo is "off".

Cute new custom built-in storage in the master bath.

Looking the other direction from the master bath.

I love how the European style glass enclosure turned out in here.

The basement bath. The turquoise shower is about the only thing in the entire house that wasn't replaced. I simply couldn't bring myself to remove that tile in the perfect shade of turquiose.

Thanks so much to everyone who worked on the project. Once again Duane, Todd, and Bryan were brilliant craftsmen!!!

Salt Lake City Style

So what does a million dollars buy you these days? Well if you live in Salt Lake City it can buy you a mini mansion with lots of iron, dark cabinets, and granite counter tops everywhere, or it can buy you about 3700 square feet of high style renovation in a family neighborhood. A million bucks can even buy you a luxury high rise condo just steps from downtown, and all that it has to offer. If you have a million dollars here, you can get almost anything you want. I know which one I would pick. Do you?

First up: Mini Mansion:

This home is listed for $980,000, and has about 5600 square feet.

Trademark iron and dark wood features.

I think the white island is a nice touch.

Cool fireplace "over mantel".

Den.

Theater (a must have for your mini-mansion).

Master Bath.

A more detailed listing for this home can be found here:

Second Choice: Renovated period home:

Totally charming exterior (in my mind the outside of my house looks just like this) :)

Super cute entrance. I love the bench built into the nook. I think I have seen this designers work before. I wish I knew her name.

Kitchen featuring Calcutta Marble, Viking and Bosch appliances. The hot pink and red accents are a fun touch. Calcutta is a nice marble choice, with a little more gold running through than Carrerra.

Cool island. I'm not sure this is exactly how I would do it, but still cool.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this banquette. This is the picture that attracted me to this house. Well this and about a MILLION other things! This is exactly what I have in mind for my small kitchen nook.

Dining room. Great wallpaper. Not much room to manuever around.

Living room. Very soothing. Love the gold framed art. Note to self: find out the name of this real estate photographer.




Master Bedroom. Ehh.

Boys bedroom. Cute.

Girls bedroom. Also cute (Lucy did not love it.... but she can be very picky).

I'm sure you can tell this is the house I like best. The rest of this listing can be found here, along with bigger pictures (I wish I could figure out how to adjust those realtor website photos).

Option #3: High Rise Condo:

I have to say, I love the idea of being able to go to a Jazz game, or concert, and then walk a few steps back home. This doesn't really feel like home to me though....I think you would always feel like you were on vacation.


This listing is actually a bargain at only $879,000, but it does only have 2200 Square Feet.

Kitchen and eating area.

Bedroom. Not much in the way of privacy.

Bath. I like the small tiles.

The reason you would buy this condo.

Another angle.

If you are interested in learning more about this property, please click here.

Thanks for joining me on this tour! Have a great week, and start buying houses! Let's get this economy going again.