DIY Stone Mat

I love the ocean. And I love ocean rocks. I love how smooth they feel and how they smell of sea salt. I especially love heart-shaped rocks and, like my mom, I have a pretty great collection started. 

With so many rocks in decorative buckets and jars that I didn't know what to do with them, I decided to seek out some ideas on Pinterest. And this was what I found! An ocean stone mat!!!! I immediately loved the idea because I love feeling them beneath my feet, so I hastily went and bought the materials. 

Translation: I went to the Dollar Store and found a Welcome mat for $1. They didn't have black which was the only bummer.

I already had the rocks and glue gun, but if you need smooth stones, craft stores and Wal-Mart have them and the Dollar Store even had smooth "river" stones which look different than the ones I used but would have worked fine. Note: You use a heck of a lot of hot glue sticks. Like twenty-five or so, if I were guessing. So stock up if you don't have many!

I chose to do a light to dark pattern for my mat but I could have done it randomly or perhaps made a heart pattern in the middle. I wasted kind of a lot of time placing the stones so they would fit well together, only to have the mat move and mess up my progress, so I would just start in a corner and move across, placing only six to eight at a time before beginning to glue them down. I used a permanent marker to darken the edges of the mat and also around the corners of the rocks as went so the green underneath wouldn't be so noticeable. (Unfortunately, I didn't think to do this until I was more than halfway through.) 

This was my mat when I had gone through all the rocks that I had already. Well, all the ones that worked for this project. Some were too big or too round.

Thankfully, my mom was able to send some at the bottom of her next package!

 Here is the finished product in front of our kitchen sink! I love how it turned out and I love how it feels under my feet!

As you can see! ;)

Let me know what you think of this project or if it's something you would make yourself!
Can you think of a way to improve it?
How many heart-shaped rocks can you spot? (There are more than a dozen in there!)

Homesick and Baby Hungry...in a different way

Every morning I wake up and say to Dalin, "Why can't she just be here already??" Then I say something along the lines of, "I wish we could just go to the ocean today or walk around Portsmouth. Or visit Boston. I miss Dad. And Payson. And Mom and Donovan. I am craving a clam chowder bread bowl from Faneuil Hall and a smoothie from The Monkey Bar." This morning, I said, "When I wake up in my room in New Hampshire, you can hear boats or jet skiers out on the lake. It makes me want to go boating." Then I said, "I can't wait until she's born and we can go to Central Harbor and bring her to all the little shops in Meredith and everyone will see her and ask, 'Is that your baby?' and we'll be like 'yup!'" 

I could go on, but you get the idea. I want our baby here NOW and I want to be in New Hampshire. My family goes to the ocean or lake like every day in the summer so it kills me when it's nice here in Provo and the ocean is a few thousand miles away. 

Besides missing my parents and brothers, (and our dog...and everyone else) I really miss the awesome places in New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont that my family visits frequently during the spring and summer months...

I miss:
Kittery Trading Post
Loco Coco's Tacos
The Ice House
Lago's
Fort Foster
Downtown Portsmouth
Fort Stark
Lake Winnipesaukee
Gilford Tennis Courts
The Gilford Public Library
Andy and Molly's House
Mill Falls
Gilford House of Pizza
Moulton Farms
Bean's and Greens
Gilford Beach
Nana and Grandpa's house
Moultonborough Country Store
Sawyer's Dairy Bar
Beech Hill Farmstand
The Joseph Smith Memorial
Johnson's Restaurant
The Boston Temple
Laconia Ward 

I'm sure there are others, but these are just a few of my favorites. 

What other great places do you love (or miss) in the east? 
Is anyone else homesick?

Rearranging. It's for the best.

Well, due to our utter failure at finding a decent place to live, we are currently at a standstill in our search. In other words, we are going to live at Wymount forever.

Thank heavens this is not really the case (I would die inside being trapped in Utah forever!), but for now it is our best option. Perhaps it has something to do with me being the Primary President and Dalin being Sunday School President. Our callings are fairly new still and though we had intended to get permission to continue attending our ward so that we might fulfill our callings, we obviously are just meant to stay here. For now, I emphasize. Someday we will be having a little baby joining us and let me tell you, we won't be living in this one-bedroom apartment when that happens. Partly because it's cramped and partly because it's not allowed.

Regardless, because of our poor luck, we (well I) decided that we needed a change. And what better change is there than rearranging the living room! I love disassembling rooms only to re-assemble them in a new way (which always seems dramatically better than before) in order to create a fresh atmosphere. It took some persuasion, and I had to make Dalin promise to help me, but we finally found an ideal arrangement for our living room. It feels twice as big, which is terrific. As a result of the change, I have had to reorganize our shelves which, to me, is SO much fun! I have a great deal of random antiques and possessions, and I always enjoy choosing new ones to spotlight in my home. My most recent alteration was developing a botany shelf...I am very fond of plants and flowers and as my collection has grown, it has become necessary to find a new location for my plants because the kitchen table was getting just a wee bit cramped. It really looks pretty and my pictures don't quite capture the effect but I am very excited about the change.

Continuing my discussion of decorating, I also have a slight obsession with antiques (particularly furniture and colored bottles) and always use them in my decorating. If I were to describe my style, I would have to say that I prefer orderly disorder. By that I mean that I love things that are so mismatched that they go together. I also am kind of a science nerd (I got this from my Grandpa French, a former seventh grade science teacher, as well as my Uncle Andy, who also loves science) and am very interested in natural art. I love the ocean and so my dream is to (like my uncle before me) fill my home with ocean rocks and driftwood and incorporate it into art. Driftwood has such a beautifully transformed structure and anything that reminds me of the ocean makes me happy. Also, this theme will fit perfectly within my dream home location of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. You pretty much just have to be there to understand why I am so in love with that area. 

Thankfully, my amazing husband loves it, too. I am a lucky girl. ;)

How do you like to decorate your home?

Greatest Inventions

What do you think are some of the greatest inventions created in this world? 

Here are my thoughts:

Toilet (I kind of feel like I had to put this first. Because even if I didn't have a house or sinks or appliances, I would still be fairly happy so long as my hut or whatever had a toilet. I love camping, but I don't think it's necessary to go the caveman way...been there, done that at girls' camp. I would not be willing to do that repeatedly. Every day.) 

Husbands (I rescind my comment earlier--this should be first. I love my husband! I love him! He makes me so happy every day! We have sad times, too, but we're best buddies and we always apologize and forgive one another.)

Cell phones (I literally don't know how I would stay sane without mine. I have nobody except for Dalin--who I would not have met if it wasn't for the cell phone--out here in Utah, and I would just hate not being able to talk to my mom, dad, and brothers every week.)

Laser eye surgery (I have yet to have this, however I absolutely must when I am 23 or 24. Contact lenses drive me crazy! And glasses are worse. Dalin has to go first though because his eyes are twice as bad as mine.)

Cars and airplanes (Otherwise, I highly doubt I'd be seeing my family very much. I am not a pioneer and even though I love taking walks, that only lasts about fifteen minutes.)

Electricity (Dalin made me say this haha. He said, "Without electricity, we wouldn't have any of that other crap.")

Literature (Without writing and languages, Dalin and I would be sooo bored because we are two avid readers...a.k.a. bookworms. We love to read, and I love to write. In my 27 journals. Just imagine if there was no such thing as words or writing. We'd all be idiots.)

So these things are great, and trust me, I can think of more--most of them involve food--but what about spiritual gifts or inventions? 

Here are some that I am most grateful for:

Our Agency

Before we came to this earth, Satan presented a plan to the Father which involved us all being the same. We would have no choices and no ability to recognize good because there would be no evil. There would be no joy or misery. There would be no love or hate. Half of this sounds good for about two seconds, but life would be completely useless if we did not know the bad. We would not learn from our mistakes or improve. I am so glad that the Savior volunteered a plan where we would be able to make choices in order to get back to our Father in Heaven.

Physical Bodies

I am glad we were given bodies so that we could come to this earth! I love life and living! It is not easy most of the time, but all of the good moments make up for it. I love the whole world! It's a beautiful place. 

Eternal Companions 

Same as husbands, but "eternity" definitely adds something. Still, I just have to clarify that it is so amazing to have the opportunity to be sealed to your spouse for eternity in the House of the Lord. It is literally the happiest event I have ever experienced in my life. I feel so much better having the knowledge that even though we may someday be parted in this life (hopefully in a hundred years), we can and will be reunited eternally. If I did not have this knowledge I think I would feel so hopeless. How do people survive in the world, never knowing where they are going or whether they will see their family again?

Us at Fort Foster in Kittery, Maine

Eternal Families

Again, going along with eternal companions, I cannot imagine being parted from a single family member forever.  That would be terrible. I would not even enjoy such a life without having the knowledge that I do have. I love my family! I have the best one! And by family I mean my husband's side and mine. I am ridiculously lucky. I love each brother and sister, and our parents are the greatest. They are so fun, generous, hardworking, and talented.

Knowledge

I am very happy to know the things I know and believe the things I do. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the one true church on this earth. I know it. I have no doubt that I would be nowhere near as happy as I am without this knowledge. I know that our knowledge is the only thing we can take with us from this life and thus that it is crucial that we do not waste this time we have here! As President Hinckley has instructed, we must grow and earn an education. We should be students all of our lives. I love learning and think this is spectacular advice from our former prophet.

Gift of forgiveness

This is so important in marriage and in life in general. To hold grudges is one of the worst and least healthy states of being I can think of. I have learned the importance of forgiving freely. Dalin and I try hard to assume the best of one another and know that neither of us would want to intentionally hurt the other. We make mistakes every day. And we apologize every single day. And we are happy as a result.

Repentance

The Savior's greatest gift to us. It is our only chance to be able to be with our families eternity. It is our only way to return to our Heavenly Father. Without repentance, our sins and burdens would never be lightened. I am so thankful for repentance.

Prayer

I am not the best at saying prayers. I carry a prayer in my heart throughout the day and try to express gratitude or ask for help the moment I think of it. But I really struggle with getting down on my knees each morning and night to sincerely (and alertly) thank Heavenly Father for my many blessings. I am grateful though that I can converse with Him all the time. About my worries, fears, joys, concerns, hopes, etc. Just the other day, I prayed desperately that we could find an important set of keys we had lost. After several minutes of looking all over our complex, we miraculously found them and I thanked our Father in Heaven fervently. Prayer is real. It works. And He listens to us. 

I hope that this made you think a little. And I apologize for making it so long...it was longer than I intended. 

Do you have any inventions or spiritual gifts you are especially glad we have been given?

We really want to hear them :)