Real Love Songs

I am a romantic. I love love, and that isn’t something that just started because I got married. But I'm also a realist. That being said the media rarely provides romantic examples I love. Were Romeo and Juliet in Love? Doubtful. Was killing themselves the right thing to do? Probably not.

Give me an Olaf and Inga love story anytime. One filled with real love growing through real life experiences—the fun ones, hard ones and boring ones.

Music also seems to be portraying the wrong type of love (yes society is doomed if top 40 reveals anything about it). Sorry Ke$ha, “your love is my drug” isn’t a real, meaningful emotion—it’s just hormones.

Anyways. One of my new favorite love songs comes from one of my new favorite bands The Head and the Heart (fitting because such complicated emotions as love need to involve both things).

And if you are like “Shannon? Love songs? How cheesy”. Then don’t be silly, just listen to this song and add some emotion to your friday night.

Shannon

Our Life

 

Well friends, we have both managed to graduate from Brigham Young University! Our last week of our undergraduate degree was sweet. Mr. Wood took us out to dinner twice! He finished all of his huge papers and tests, I had my first week of a real job, it was wonderful.

The ceremony was fun. You get to line up and walk up these winding stairs and past all the professors. That was my favorite part. Also everyone wears robes. The professors have the fanciest robes. We have the cheapest disposable robes.

For my local shout out—We went to Joe Bandidos in Springville for dinner. Okay here's the deal. Literally the best chips and salsa around. That is not a lie. But I was all like “joe, why are you putting boiled celery in my taco salad?”. I don’t know…

anyways…

Friday we went to see some friends (and family) perform at the Muse in Provo. The lovely L’Anarchiste and the new Panther Strut featuring my ever handsome cousin Andy Brimhall. Both were great and fun to listen too. L’anarchiste is only getting better, and Andy’s group was surprising and entertaining with soon to be crowd favorites like the one featuring “Hook” references. It was a good night.

Saturday was an absolutely wake-up-early-in-the-morning-filled-to-the-brim type of day. We successfully pulled crab grass for 3 hours in the flower garden, and I have the cruelest rose thorn wounds and neck burn to prove it. We also managed to clean the house, eat French toast and buy a new tambourine before noon. The people at that music store on university are quite nice and interesting and would love to tell you stories. We also managed to run errands. We were rewarded for choosing Target as our bug-spray provider of choice, with 3 free earth-friendly samples. I think though that those earth friendly items are tricking you, they are almost the exact same ingredient list as normal items (yeah I'm looking at you Johnson and Johnson).

We then prepared for our dinner that night with our Atomic Test Kitchen friends for a night of “Apastasea”: apostasy themed pasta dinner night. No, it doesn’t really make that much sense, but there were practically mountains of pasta and seas of sauce. There was a poetry recitation about a seagull and Mr. Wood and I performed “Wade in the Water” with our new tambourine and our soulful voices.The three people left at the dinner were very appreciative. To be consistently quirky I provided chocolate pasta with raspberry sauce or caramel sauce. Um… not my favorite thing, but it was funny (here is the recipe if you were wondering, be sure to add water). There were lots of lovely sauces that night to eat.

Sunday we taught the little ones about birds and insects. I know right? We are only the most bird-loving-young-couple in our ward! The best part was introducing caterpillars while Mr. Wood and I rummaged for supplies, and we looked up to find all the sunbeams on the floor scooting around with their tummies—the lead sunbeam assigning roles “..and you can be the daddy caterpillar and I can be the mommy…”. Also we learned that “you can’t eat beard, it will make you sick”. The little lovelies were wondering what body parts we eat. They decided that we don’t eat eyebrows or noses either.

Also, Coming soon: our homemade sandals via Luna Sandals DIY kit

 

Shannon

The Mood: Spring Music

With spring popping up, and a recent glorious sunny weekend, I couldn’t help but find the perfect spring-type album to listen to while I worked on spring-type activities.

The choice is one that Mr. Wood and I both love and that we both agree is a bit inexplicable. We could put this artist into a genre…but that would be both difficult and unnecessary, for when you hear them you know that this is their sound alone.

The band? Dirty Projectors. The album? Bitte Orca.

The songs you should hear before summer creeps in on you like a fresh sunburn?

Obviously all. Together as a whole.

But Maybe listen to this as a sample

Now if that doesn’t sound like spring you must live in Arizona. Or some place with very little seasonal change….

Now listen to this song “Useful Chamber” to understand why you should listen to the whole album

Want to keep going? Maybe it is the kind of music you have to listen to multiple times to truly love, but I promise you the complexity of the songs never gets boring. Listen to the whole album.

And if you think you can handle this go watch their official music video for one of our favorite songs (which Mr. Wood does a particularly good interpretation of), and try to put that into a box.

Enjoy the rest of this Lovely Fierce Spring.

Shannon

Dyeing to be Pastel

This lovely little post is the story of a pair of pants born white wanting to be pastel.
The idea came from Lovely Kiera B. my longtime friend and roommate. She wanted some red pants (having some of my own, I only encouraged the idea). So we went off to Ross to buy some white skinnies for each of us.
We commenced dying the next day. Goal: Kiera Red, Shannon Mint.
Unfortunately mine had a disco ball on the back pockets so there was a little work to do before I started.

Fortunately they came off in like 5 minutes. Cheapest. Rhinestones. Ever. Really Ross!
here are the bedazzling's of only one pocket

I know right?
Then the next step was dying. Which of course accompanied triple layer brownies and a chic-flick. If you are going to do something, do it right--you know?
Before:

We did 2 methods: Washing machine and Stovetop.
Kiera’s red pants in the washing machine worked great. We reset the wash twice so that they could get jiggled around in the dye for the suggested 30 minutes. Result? Hot Red Pants in an excellent shade of tomato red. The only con? It dyed my machine pink. A load of bleach took most of it out and a white scrubbing sponge took out most of the rest though.
As for the mint ones? Well, the dying went well. I followed instructions mostly from a RIT package though. Be sure to get your clothing wet before putting it in the dye or else it will not absorb evenly. Also, I used a 98% cotton product, so it sucked up the color like a thirsty giraffe. I didn’t dye it as long as suggested. I bought tulip dye in teal (pale teal would be a nice mint right?). It turns out teal=sky blue, and the only one who cares is me because I am a color snob,  but you all knew that anyways. It will work perfectly for Kiera’s sister’s bridesmaid dresses, but not for my legs.

Exhibit A

Now this I'm sure would work for some people. Although, if you all of the sudden add a slightly unnatural hue to your wardrobe with consists mostly of pale pinks, creams, yellows and tomato reds you are going to be quite sorry. So I had to suck the day glow out of these pants--for the good of the wardrobe.
Also I was incredibly disappointed that the color was not the color advertised on the package…
The solution was to put it in the washing machine in a hot bath of bleached water. Bleach is a tricky thing, never expect it to bleach something just a lighter shade of the current hue, you will be disappointed. Almost always it will bleach yellowish or pinkish (or completely white). So I took a gamble-either it would add just the right amount of pale and yellow to turn these pants mint, or I would get a weird pinkish color.
I was lucky.

Tah-Dah! Now you can look at this blog-made fashion shoot of me wearing my pants, and yes it is true--I just put them on for the picture. But! Still don’t believe me that this looks better?

 VS.

Although, I won’t try to hard to convince you, because in the end it is really just opinion.
To pale-pant-fads that I whole heartedly endorse! Although not for $50 (Gap…)

Shannon

Our Life

Here is the update on how we are doing as of this week!

Mr. Wood is in finals right now, scurrying to finish portfolios and papers before Wednesday. The end of classes is exciting, but there is no time to celebrate. Although we did enjoy Friday night reading books at the library on wood and gardening and then watching sci-fi channels mini-series/long movie wonder “Alice”. It was very enjoyable.

I also got to enjoy Thursday night with my loveliest lady gals Kiera and Stephanie. Kiera wanted to dye pants red, so I jumped on the boat to dye pants mint. Stephanie just dyed her hair, just kidding.. sort of. More on this dying shenanigans later. And we made this recipe, which we changed to “triple layer brownies” as there was a man present and we are opposed to negative language. They were delicious. I love how the newest fad is to just make desserts that include every other dessert and Oreos. THEN we watched “When in Rome” which was silly and girly and entertained us thoroughly. In the end we enjoyed a completely wonderful “girls night” with out seriously damaging or dying anything… except for the pants and maybe the washing machine. Well worth it.

Our plants are huge!

The weather was crazy!

Best day of the week award goes to Saturday when we decided to do some mild mountain biking (aka biking on gravely trails) behind our house on the Bonneville trail. It was a gorgeous gray day and we saw lots of curious birds and diverted lots of medium sized rocks. Then we got caught in the rain. But since it is spring, we were on a mountain, and moving fast it was really like ice specks in our face. But Provo is even prettier when it rains in the spring and we enjoyed our ride down completely. Something about running in the rain brings you back to life. It was just what Mr. Wood needed to be distracted from homework for the rest of the day. Which was fine because we also had to make pizza (yes it is like that every weekend) and go to stake conference.

I also finished Miss Rebecca’s wedding dress. I’m going to wait till I have real photos to show you the final product, but here are some details I feel good about.

The little satin lined cuff

The hand pieced lace neckline

My first attempt at corseting (on sheer fabric nonetheless!)

It was a very enjoyable experience, I'm so happy she contacted me about it! She even trusted me to work on her bridesmaids dresses. The wedding will be beautiful, I can’t wait to see pictures. Weddings are the best. Marriage is the best.

Also, I bought 6 heads of cabbage. Why? For one, it was 8 lbs. for $1 at BuyLow this week (what?!). But mostly because of this silly craze:

 

Yeah. Roasted cabbage. It is ridiculously good. Listen, I really dislike cooked cabbage. I like some salads but they upset my stomach too much. This though? Delicious. And didn’t upset my delicate insides. Proof? 2 nights in a row Mr. Wood and I ate half a head each. But, we have to take a break right now. Hopefully cabbage can handle sitting in our fridge that is and acts like it is from the ‘70s.

And Mr. Wood finished reading “A Reverence for Wood”, and gained exactly what the title suggests. I gained a little too.

Well, this week we have had a great time connecting to our earth (weather taking rain showers, or eating of it’s bounteous cabbage crop) and hope that you get to do the same.

 

Shannon

Pretty Things

If you like to support people who make pretty things in their home you should go to etsy.

I’ve created this little visual list of beautiful yellow things that I found on Etsy if you want to look

Don’t worry, this isn’t shameless self promotion.

Click here if you want to see the stores who made these things.

Yellow suns and Springtime

  

 

Shannon

Our Life

It has been another lovely week. Mainly because our peas started popping out of the soil!

Here are two things that I bought for Mr. Wood, a new shirt from Gap (thanks mom and dad Wood for the gift card) and the hugest grapefruit ever. We have this store nearby that always has ridiculous sales on produce. This week it was 10 lbs. of oranges for $1 (i know right?!) 4 heads of lettuce for $1 (the pile of lettuce heads was an absolute massacre, I'm surprised I found one still alive) and grapefruits 4 for $1. Little did I know going into the store that the grapefruits were the size of newborn heads.

 

Also, note Mr. Wood’s ‘stache, he is thinking of shaving it soon and you might never get to see his months work.

I’ll get all the food stories out of the way. I made our favorite Spanish rice recipe on Wednesday with some beans. Did you ever know a couple that is ecstatic to have just beans and rice for dinner? Well you do, because it is us. 60% of why we go out to eat at Mexican restaurants is for the beans and rice, 20% for salsa and chips and 20% for the chimichanga or enchilada. Goodness knows the chimichangas are usually disappointing though, yet we still get them. Don’t worry, we had salad and some tortillas too so we weren’t too weird. Best. Rice. Ever.

Probably because it is made in a cast iron pan, and baked in the oven.

Also, I found a cheerio on the bookshelf, we don’t even have children, how did it get there?

Then, I was eating a snack and looked at the box and was like “oh my goodness gracious.”

What are the chances?

Later on, we had an Easter weekend. We got to go to see local art on Friday, first at the BYU football locker rooms, some student art show. There was a shower room filled with goldfish hanging in plastic bags from the ceiling. That is all I'm going to say about that. Then we went downtown for the gallery stroll. It is great to see your community and the things that they make.

Saturday was filled with making Easter sweets (for me, Mr. Wood did homework) and gardening weeds. Both were exhausting but satisfying. For some reason I decided that I needed to make two desserts for the Easter dinner with the Wood family. It seemed to make so much sense. In the end they were both ridiculously sugary (but delicious, don’t get me wrong) and everyone was too full from dinner and candy. But don’t worry, I left enough at Mom Wood’s house that we don’t have to finish a whole 3 layer cake ourselves. Not to say that we haven’t before…

I'm going through a cake phase….

Shannon

Fresh bows at BowKnots

Hi,

I made some cute little bows for bowknots recently.

I have a current fixation with gold and mint, so here it is. There will be more posted soon.

Are there other colors you would like to see?

Also, Hopefully I will get the nerve up to make some shirts for summer to put up in the shop. You guy's trust me right? To make nice looking clothes?

You can see them in action if you click my shop link, but you already know that…

I just love spring. And mint.

Maybe these are more pistachio? Mint leaves are quite dark, whereas pistachios are naturally pale.

Shannon

Our Life: double edition

Well, there is a lot to catch you up on I’m sure. Since 2 weeks are quickly fading away I thought I should write down some shining moments.

Mr. Wood and I started our potted garden with spinach, lettuce, peas and cilantro. I was going to take a picture, but there was a frost last night, and we will have to just wait and see what happens to them…

Also, we drove around west Provo, has anyone been there? It is like the country! Beautiful and flat.

I also made too many baked goods as usual and got ready for a trip to Denver Colorado for business!

Colorado was totally exciting. Sure I was getting trained most of the day, but we stayed in the Brown Palace built in 1892! The textiles alone were enough to keep me interested. Not to mention the fact that there were no paper napkins or plastic utensils in sight, everything was top notch. In the evenings I made new friends and convinced them to go to various restaurants in the downtown. We also made friends with the courtesy driver who took us on a tour of Denver (in a Mercedes!). The hotel was grand and haunted (that’s what they say) and everyone was incredibly proper and nice. By Wednesday though I was done with fanciness (so was my stomach) and ready to see my Mr. Wood again. here is a photo journal of my adventures, obviously I have no idea what you are supposed to take pictures of when on adventures.

Mr. Wood didn’t have the most exciting time while I was gone, but he did get some pretty neat souvenirs—like a cookie I got while flying first class, some brown palace pencils and notepads of paper, a tiny honey jar and the best slice of chocolate orange breakfast bread ever. I seriously don’t know what it was, but the hotel had it for breakfast and it was deliciously full of chocolate.

Pretty much all the food was delicious. I really liked the hotels food the best though, who knew!

This week we got to see our little tiny spinaches and lettuces come out of the ground!

We also went to a new Japanese restaurant downtown Provo; Sora. Uh, delicious. Everything is tasty probably. Look at their facebook page and see pics of the food, it actually looks like that! The restaurant is definitely chic and beautiful. We loved what we ordered, plus we got a bonus sushi dish! I don’t like sushi, but this special treat was fantastic. I don’t know what it was (the chef was experimenting in the back and we were the guinea pigs?) but it had strawberries and this salty strawberry sauce over this clean white fish sushi roll. I know, it was beautiful. So if you are in Provo you should definitely go here (especially if you are like me and have sushi loving friends but don’t like sushi yourself because the other dishes are also delicious). And I don’t want Sora to go away… Also, it is affordable. check! Great clean delicious food that makes you feel good to eat.

And we got to watch general conference on TV in our snug little basement, with a little gardening and biking in between. Not to forget the tasty little foods we made since my stomach was recovered. Uh, caramelized onion macaroni and cheese with zucchini and mushroom and bacon, and Mr. Wood made the tastiest pizzas for us on Sunday. Michael made the most genius buffalo chicken pizza ever. Details to come later in a guest recipe post?

As for now, we are doing well and hope that you are enjoying the lovely blossoms!

Seriously though, I think of things other then food sometimes…

Shannon