Pinterest Wednesday- DIY projects

Happy Wednesday and happy last day of August! I am linking up with Michelle @ The Vintage Apple (www.thevintageapple.com) again for Oh, How Pinteresting Wednesday!
These are some of my favorite DIY finds the past couple of weeks.






A map of where we met, married and live! I plan on making this over the weekend :)


DIY pillows...love all of these!


Cut up your wedding invitation into strips and place in glass ball ornament. This would be a great gift for newlyweds!


Perfect for all my earrings & necklaces!


Monogrammed Pumpkin for Fall decoration. I WILL be making this.


We used this song in our slide show at our Rehearsal Dinner! It would be cute on a big wall surrounded by wedding pictures...Hmm, maybe in our next house!

That's it for now! Sorry for not providing links to each one...my computer won't let me do that. But find me on Pinterest here and you will see all these on my DIY board... http://pinterest.com/lesliebrooke/

7 Days in Utah

I'm not going to lie, when I thought of Utah I thought of a dried up desert for the most part. Boy was I wrong! Utah is BEAUTIFUL...the mountains, canyons, rivers, cities and the weather. Loved it all. Last Monday I got to go to Salt Lake City for work for the week. I spent Monday-Friday in Salt Lake City and Chris flew up to meet me there late Thursday night and we spent the weekend in Park City.

I had a couple nights on my own to do what I wanted. I went downtown and walked around Temple Square and went shopping at this outdoor shopping center called Gateway Mall one night and drove 30 minutes north to the town of Ogden and drove thru Ogden Canyon and around Trappers Loop one night. I also tried In-N-Out Burger for my first time. Unfortunately I was not impressed. Five Guys is MUCH better in my opinion.

My body had a hard time adjusting to the dry air and altitude the first few days. My nose bled off & on one whole day, I was congested, I had a headache the entire 7 days and one morning I woke up feeling really sick. Luckily, some advil, allergy med's and a lot of water helped!

Chris and I headed to Park City on Friday. Park City is only a 30 minute drive from SLC but we were told about this way to go that takes about an hour but it is a beautiful drive thru Provo Canyon so we decided to go that way since we were not in a hurry. We came across a trail that led straight to a HUGE waterfall, The Bridal Veil Waterfall. It really did look like a bridal veil! I never thought I would go to Utah and see 2 beautiful waterfalls hidden deep in canyons! We finally made it to Park City, checked in to our resort, the Marriott Moutainside. It is literally on the mountain and steps away from tons of activities and gondolas to take you up to the top of the mountain. We rode the Alpine Coaster, Alpine Slide and Chris managed to convince me to do a zip line from the top of the mountain all the way to the bottom. Still can not believe I did it...

That night we went to Main Street...it is the popular street lined with boutiques, art galleries, restaurants, bars and the famous Egyptian Theater. We walked in and out of shops and then headed to High West Distillery for a couple drinks before dinner. Within 5 minutes of being here we knew this was our new favorite place. We sat at the bar, made friends with the bar tender and drank some delicious drinks. We sat at the outdoor patio of Cisero's for dinner and had some delicious Italian food.

We spent the majority of Saturday at the Utah Olympic Park...home of some of the 2002 Winter Olympic events. It was so fun! We watched past Olympians and future Olympians do crazy flips and jumps into a 750,000 gallon pool, walked around the museum and Chris rode the bobsled! I wanted to take pictures and did not care to be banged around a track going 70 mph so I just let him do it. He had fun but said it was really intense and hard to breath at times. We went to Main St. again that night and went to the High West Distillery again for a couple drinks then went to the Roadhorse for dinner. They say this is the #1 restaurant in Park City...I can see why. It was a beautiful restaurant with a great menu and good service.

Finally, Sunday morning we had plans to go horseback riding but we woke up late and kind of unmotivated so we headed BACK to Main St (can you tell we liked Main St?!) and had breakfast at Easy Street then walked around the Park Silly Farmers Market. There is a gondola that goes right over Main St and up to another mountain but it opened late on Sunday so we did not get to ride that one. We had to head to the airport around 11 AM.

Here are several pictures from our trip:
















Park City is home to the Sundance Film Festival every January. The locals call it Hollywood East because of all the celebrities that have homes there and spend so much time there.
If you are looking for a vacation spot in the US, I would seriously consider Park City or even other parts of Utah. There is so much to do in the Winter AND Summer and it is beautiful!

One day we hope to take a trip back to Utah and go to Moab:




Happy Travels! =)

Back in the great state of Texas!

I am back after spending 7 great days in Utah! It was so hard to leave the beautiful weather there to come back to 105+ days. But, I am very happy to be home =)
I am going to post pictures and do a full blog post on Utah tomorrow....after these past 7 days I think Utah might be one of my favorite states so I have a lot to post about.

In the meantime......
If you are a reader and have not read the Hunger Games trilogy yet, go out and buy the books today and start reading them. I finished the first one in a couple days and am half way thru with the 2nd one. Best. Books. Ever. I never thought I would like a book like this...it is kind of sci-fi and takes place after the end of the world but I can not put these books down. While I was watching the VMA's last night I watched the short trailer for the Hunger Games movie and can not wait for it to come out in March 2012.

Weekend Recap- Best Friends, A Baby Shower and a Texans Win!

Hello from Salt Lake City, everyone! I know I am a little late but here is a recap of this past weekend...

Saturday was one of my best friend's baby shower so Friday night I got to spend time with 2 of my best friends and the sister in law of the mommy to be (we were hosting the shower). We went to dinner at BRC in Houston then the 4 of us spent hours decorating my house for the baby shower. A little history- There are 4 of us and we have been best friends since we were in 5th grade or so. Holly, Jennifer, Sarah and me! Here is a picture of us at our senior prom 10 years ago-

After high school we all went our separate ways...I moved to West Palm Beach, FL for college, Holly went to Baylor, Sarah went to Oklahoma State and Jenn went to Hardin Simmons then Texas Tech. 10 years has past and we are still best friends. 3 of us are back in the Houston area so we get to see each other pretty regularly and one is still in OK but we are constantly working on getting her and her little family to move back to Houston :) So, now, Jenn is pregnant with her first baby...Miss Ella Victoria will be here sometime in the next month we are hoping!
The shower on Saturday turned out to be so much fun...Jenn got a lot of great gifts and we had a great turn out. Here are just a few of the pictures from the shower-






Saturday night was the Texans 2nd pre-season game against the Saints! Hubby and I went with our friends Kim & Chris and had a great time. The Texans won!! Whohoo! It is looking like it is going to be a great season :)




I flew to Salt Lake City yesterday and will be here until Friday. This is a beautiful city. Now I can't wait for my hubby to get here Thursday night so we can spend the weekend in Park City!

PRAY FOR RAIN, TEXAS

"WEST TEXAS TOWN TEETERS ON DRYING UP IN DROUGHT"
"TEXAS DROUGHT NOW 2ND WORST ON RECORD"
"DROUGHT REVEALS SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA DEBRIS IN EAST TEXAS LAKE"
"TEXAS DROUGHT COSTING 5.2 BILLION"
"TEXAS DROUGHT WILL HARM WILDLIFE HABITAT FOR YEARS TO COME"

If you google "Texas" right now these are just some of the headlines that will pop up in the first couple of pages. 78% of Texas is in an "exceptional" drought which is the worst category possible and another 12% is in the 2nd worst category. All of the lakes, rivers and ponds are drying up; cities are under water restrictions; trees, plants, flowers and animals are dying and the heat is almost unbearable some days. I can honestly say I have no clue when the last time it rained for more than 15 minutes was (and that was once last week, but before that I think it had been a couple months at least).
For those of you that do not live here, Lake Conroe is a lake about 45 minutes north of downtown Houston...it is the lake where Chris and I got engaged, where we spend every 4th of July and many other weekends in the Spring/Summer...well, it is currently down about 6 or 7 feet. Most people can not even get their boats out on to the lake because there boats are hovering over grass and dirt now instead of water. And if you are able to go out on a boat there are several parts of the lake you can not go to now because the levels are so low. The mayor of Houston, Annise Parker, started enforcing water restrictions in Houston this week and is now having 50 MILLION gallons of water pumped from Lake Conroe every day and brought to Lake Houston. Lake Houston's levels are down even lower than Lake Conroe and Lake Houston is the location of Houston's water purification plant so they must stabilize the lake level for operational needs. The release will be gradually increased to 150 MILLION gallons a day over the coming weeks and months.

Here is a picture of a car that was stolen in 1990 in Houston. It was found yesterday in Lake Houston in a part of the lake where the levels were so low that the top of the car could be seen sticking out-


Here are some other pictures of how the drought is affecting Texas-







This is a drought map of Texas. The dark red is the most severe.



It is really sad and they are saying there is no end in sight right now. We might not go into a "rainy pattern" until November or December and we are going to have a hot Fall.

Here is a prayer for rain that I came across. A pastor here in Houston wrote this-

“God, you send rains in season. It is a season of need in Texas. Send more rain to that parched land and more again across all the thirsty southern states. Find a small and willing cloud sitting bored over some vacant part of the Caribbean, and give it a push toward Houston. Make a Hurricane, perhaps, not strong enough to destroy, but filled with warmed moisture and send it North. We ask you for rain. Let the drought unite many millions to ask you for help. We trust in you. You made the world to need the waters of heaven. You made the world to need the waters of life. You are the source of rain. We ask you. Let it rain. In Jesus name.”

God Bless Texas!

Salt Lake City/Park City Trip!

It is Friday!! Praise the Lord! I am headed to Salt Lake City, UT for work on Monday. It will be my first time there and I am so excited. I am looking forward to being in the mountains and some much cooler weather.

I get to travel about once a month for my job and I have gotten to go to some pretty cool places that I would never go to if it were not for my job. Utah is a perfect example of that. I love getting to travel around the US and see some really great parts of our country. I will work during the day and in the evenings I try to eat at places that have been recommended to me and go see some of the sights that the town/city is famous for.

I am super excited about this specific trip because my hubby is going to fly up and meet me there on Thursday night and we are going to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the mountains in Park City! We have always wanted to take a trip to the mountains in the Summer...we want to hike, mountain bike ride, ride the gondola's and alpine slides and much more. It looks like the temperatures will be in the high 80's during the day and in the low 60's at night and in the morning... this is probably what I am most excited about. It has been well over 100 degrees for over 15 days in a row here in Houston and I am over it. I am ready for some much cooler weather!

Have any of you ever been to Salt Lake City or Park City? Any recommendations- places to eat, things to see and do?

SALT LAKE CITY





PARK CITY

Cake Decorating Class #3

Tuesday night was my last cake decorating class. There is actually one more next Tuesday but I am traveling for work next week so I have to miss it. I am going to try to make it up next month though. I won't "graduate" and get my completion certificate unless I take that class, so I must do it!

For Tuesday's class we had to prepare several batches of icing and color them and bring in undecorated cupcakes.


We learned how to add filling to the inside of a cupcake and different techniques for decorating the top. Now I know how to properly ice the top of a cupcake, make leaves and several different kinds of flowers. Here are a few of the cupcakes I decorated (I only had my blackberry so the quality is not very good)-




I had so much fun taking this class and learned a lot. The next class is Fondant & Gum Paste. I would love to do this one eventually but I want to make sure I do it when I know I won't have to miss any of the classes.

Pinterest Wednesday- Wreath Edition

I am linking up with The Vintage Apple (http://www.thevintageapple.com) for another week of Oh, How Pinteresting Wednesdays! Thanks to Pinterest I now I am dying to make some wreaths...a cute monogram wreath, an A&M wreath, a Fall wreath and Christmas wreath. Here are some of my favorites this week-












Happy Wednesday!!