Project: Kitchen Nook

I have to start this out by just saying how amazing Micah is. Seriously. He built this entire kitchen bench in 3 days, working around helping take care of Olive so I could have a girls date with my friend Ashley, & also prepping for a work conference in Reno. Best husband right here. 

So when we built our house we opted to not have the built-in nook in our kitchen done by our contractor because it was going to cost around $500.  Well then the procrastination/other purchases took over & the bench became a sort of "we'll get to it later" thing. I offered to host a baby shower for my good friend Lindsey on December 7th and realized... I want a kitchen table & bench for that! Haha I'm such a nice demanding wifey. ;)

Here's the finished product:

Pretty perfect.  :)

Here's how we did it. 

After some quick measurements Micah went to work. 

And stole some wood from the new construction homes next door (they didn't mind). 

So here's the before picture:

Don't mind my baby shower decor that I started putting up already. ;)

He framed in the basics with some 2x4's. 

Placed in the support

Added particle board to the sides

I then helped Micah screw the sides into the wall, directly onto the studs. 

Once those were in place, we pulled a sheet into our construction zone aka kitchen and I went to town painting the bench. 

And myself. 

Once those were set to dry, I painted the trim pieces. I wanted to paint these separately so that I could use the roller on the particle board without having to fight the edges on the trim. 

I laid them all out flat and just used the roller on all of them. Super simple, took maybe 5 minutes for 2 coats. 

I turned them on their sides and carefully rollered them again. 

Once the sides of the bench had dried we secured the actual bench bones to the floor. Sorry hardwood, we kinda murdered you under there. It was tough work, trying to perfectly align the bench and keep it level. I pretty much sat on the floor and either pushed or pulled as hard as I could on the wood while Micah screwed them down. 

Micah then nailed the trimming into place, using "finish nails" or Brad nails so that the head would be less visible. 

Time for the finishing touches! 

Micah cut the MDF (top actual seat portion) to the right lengths painted them. 

We put the pieces onto the bench, lined them up, & screwed them in place. 

Micah went around the whole bench at this point & added calking to all of the nail & screw heads, as well as the edges of the trimming that needed it. 

Lastly we decorated! Pillows are from Target, deer platter & candles from Target, I made the runner, table from Downeast, and chairs from Ikea. 

I'm so so so happy with how this turned out!! It's so nice to have an actual table to use! Thank you Pinterest for yet another home project completed. 

xoxo Mandi 

Providence Hall Boutique

Soooo busy lately!

Ok... Let's start with the craziest of all..

I decided to start up a shop called Mini, Mama, & Co. Surprise on the name, right? ;) I wanted to start out a company making baby stuff that I actually wanted, mommy stuff that was comfortable & practical, and home decor that wasn't crazy expensive but was cute & trendy. 

My first crafty adventure was making table runners. I saw a really cute simple table runner sell for like $20 on this Facebook page called Herriman 24/7 (kinda like a local KSL website) but the runners all sold out before I could snatch one. Then randomly the next day or so I went to hobby lobby & saw the same fabric as the runner on 24/7. 

Light bulb!

I went hunting, bought some red chevron duck print canvas (thicker material, won't wear & tear as much) and also a cute mistletoe printed burlap. Love. 

I bought enough fabric to make 3 runners so I went to work. At first each runner took like 1 1/2 hours to make! Kill me! But over time I got more efficient, better at it, and much quicker so that each only took me about 30 minutes. 

I sold all 3 in one day. No joke! So back to hobby lobby I went!

That morning Olive had her 4 month shots (so tragic) and when I was leaving I had the distinct thought to go to hobby lobby... Since I was already dressed & out and about I decided to go. Poor sad Livi fell asleep on the way after screaming her face off.

While I was in the store I ran into a woman buying fabric & we got to chatting. She loved my fabric, thought the runner was darling & wanted one! I was dying! So when she came to pick it up from me, she started telling me about this upcoming boutique, that I should totally do it. Super intrigued, I called up providence hall charter school(where she said it would be held) and decided to take a giant leap of faith & do it! Crazy that if I hadn't gone to hobby lobby I wouldn't have bumped into her, sold a runner to her, and decided to really even start this amazingly scary yet ridiculously fun adventure! Her name was Hazel, and I am so grateful to her! xoxoxo 

So I started out small, making headbands for girls, bow ties for little guys, 

frames for bows,

Nursing covers for moms,

make up bags,

little tiny banners my friend Sheridan made for me,

and Christmas table runners (which really started it all). 

I genuinely had no idea what to expect before I walked into this boutique but was just kinda going on faith & hope that people would want my stuff & that it would be profitable not just a fun adventure. 

I prepped by grabbing some plain wooden letters (again hobby lobby is my drug...) and spelling out "mini mama co" with them, gluing and glittering them to death, and hanging them on a twine. 

And made my own business cards. ;)

I used an app called "a beautiful mess" for those. Love that app. 

So Friday afternoon Micah and I drove over to the school, set up my booth, and hung out with my headband model, Livi. In between manning the booth & eating Wendy's frosties, I wandered through the gym, scoping out my competition & also seeing if there was anything I felt like buying. 

One way cute little booth caught my eye. They named it Keep Onn, a super fun button earring boutique & an organic hippy-esque bath scrub boutique. I got to talking to the girls there quite a bit & ended up buying some fun button earrings. Before the boutique ended we traded supplies, my bow ties/adult hair bows for earrings & lavender body scrub. Worked for me!

On Friday night after theboutique ended we raced over to my parent's house & dropped off Livi with my brother Johnny to babysit for us while we went to see Catching Fire with Jess & Dan. 

Catching fire was pretty legit. Better than the first "hunger games". I had seen it just 2 days before with Maegan for a free premiere showing but since I kinda loved it I was totally fine with seeing it again.  :)

Throughout the weekend boutique I had a lot of familiar faces come by & keep me company which was really nice since Micah was on Olive duty... And she was not super happy towards the end. 

Overall I was profitable, but didn't sell all of my stuff. The whole boutique wasn't as busy as I expected either, and when I spoke with the other booth operators they said it was a slower year than last.  Kind of a bummer.

On a positive note though, I've sold almost all of my table runners on KSL/Facbook's Herriman 24/7 page.  Woo! And I've never thought of this little "business adventure" of mine as being a crazy money maker... just a really fun hobby that I love that apparently other people do too haha.

I can now officially say that I have done something I never thought in a million years that I would do: enter a boutique and sell my own handmade products. :) pretty proud moment for me.

xoxo Mandi

Russell Moab Trip

Ah I looooove Moab! I had never been before I met Micah (genuinely didn't even know what Moab was, seeing as I grew up in Washington) but I'm so glad he has a passion for it.

We went down to Moab for just a quick vacation, to celebrate Micah's & his brother Josh's birthdays (Micah's is on October 25th & Josh's is October 26th) and also to be together as a whole Russell family.

Micah and I left super late on Thursday (the 24th)... like 11:00pm haha. We wanted to be in Moab for the whole day Friday and Saturday because we had to come back home on Sunday... Micah got a new job (woo!) and had to fly out to Texas for training.

We stayed in the Bowen Motel, pet friendly because our pup Zoey came with us. I think she loves Moab even more than I do. It was a fun full car, with Zo & Liv in the back, Micah driving & me playing DJ.  

On Friday morning (Happy Birthday Micah!) we went to breakfast at Moab Diner -- best breakfast in town.. mmmmm their bacon is delish! After we met up with the rest of the Russell clan, the boys went on a bike ride & the rest of us hung out around town for a bit, shopped in the classic Moab T-Shirt store & the Moab BARKery. I bought a onesie for Olive and a bone for Zoey.  :) Ali, my sister in law, babysat Livi for me since her little one Cat was feeling sick.

Livi rockin her new Moab swag

After shopping, we went for a hike to Hunters Canyon.  Dianne & Lynn decided to sit this hike out and offered to babysit Olive for me. It was kinda nice! The last time I was in Moab was when I was 8 months pregnant & Micah and I actually hiked Hunters Canyon. We didn't go all the way to the end because I was giant and wobbly, and felt like I was going to have Olive right there on the trail haha. Going on it the second time it was soooooo much shorter! We again didn't get to go the very end because everyone wanted to grab dinner earlier (for the kiddos).  :(  but I have heard that the end of the hike is the best part and I'm so bummed! Arg. One day I will see that view. We did get to stop and throw a stick for Zoey to go swim after in these big pools of water though. She used to haaate the water but now she is a total champ, loves it.

We of course went to Zax Pizzeria for dinner. I literally cannot go to Moab without getting dinner there. It's amazing! Endless pizza buffet and they will custom make any kind of pizza that you want. My fave is their honey chicken pizza.. doesn't sound that amazing, but trust me, it's sooooo good!

Seriously my favorite picture ever. Micah and his Mini

That night we had pie at the condo where Josh & Ben's families were staying (Lynn & Dianne were staying in the same hotel as us) and played a game called Heads Up. It is soooo fun! seriously, go download it on your smart phone, you won't be disappointed. You pretty much hold the phone up to your forehead while everyone else in the room sees the word displayed on the screen (i.e. a movie, food, actor, place, activity...) and without saying the words on the screen they have to get you to guess it. Like charades, but the fun twist is that your phone's forward facing camera records the whole thing so you have these ridiculous clips of people desperately trying to get you to guess what the word is... Pretty rad. I think it's only a dollar too, so hop on it. They have a "Just for kids section" too so it's not just adult stuff.

The next morning we went for another hike, to Negro Bills, which Micah and I had been on before with Zoey. Thankfully both hikes are dog friendly, so we didn't have to leave Zo in the car.

And this time Lynn & Dianne came with us and we brought Livi in our baby Bjorn and totally forgot sunscreen, a hat... ugh we fail at parents... so we borrowed sunscreen from Josh & Kelly then bought this amazingly touristy hat for Liv. It's for an adult, mind you... they didn't have infant hats. Oh the poor thing is going to hate us for taking pictures of her in it!

Negro Bills is very pretty, a lot of river crossings like Hunters Canyon. They're both pretty flat, but I'd say between the two, Negro Bills is more of a climbing work out. Nothing too technical, but just some bigger rocks to get over. To save on time we also didn't finish this hike... ugh! but I've finished this one before so it wasn't as disappointing to me.  :)  It ends in a big arch that you can repeal down (if you drop in from another entrance to the hike) and it's kinda neat to see people coming down it.

Dumb finger got in the shot, but look at that tongue! holy crap, crazy dog!

Olive was such a champ the whole 2.8 mile hike. Didn't fuss, took a bottle actually while we were hiking, and was just kinda hanging out. She had perfect timing to get bored/tired though, literally right when we saw our cars again, coming back. We strapped her into the carseat & took off for a quick lunch at Wendy's then to go for a Jeep trail, Hell's Revenge. 

on Negro Bills

Lynn, Ben and his girls were in a rented RZR 4-seater, Josh, Kelly, & their boys in their Jeep, and Micah, Dianne, Olive, Zoey, & I were in our Jeep. Full car!! Hell's Revenge is a very scenic, easy trail to do in any kind of vehicle. We went to the plateau at the end, took some pics, then turned right back around.

I love these two. 

Olive slept for pretty much the entire shaky car ride and Zoey tried to jump onto Dianne's lap in the front seat for the bumpy parts. Apparently Zoey doesn't love sitting in the car. So she & I jumped out and ran along side the Jeep for a little while.

That night we had dinner back and the condo, some pazookies (melty cookies with ice cream on top, yum!) and just hung out til we had to go home.

Fun mini vaca, wish we could've stayed longer!

Who ya gonna call?!

My second favorite holiday is here! I'm a Christmas girl at heart... Kinda obsessed... But Halloween is so fun! I love the crisp fall air, caramel apples (I've already had several), and of course the creepy fun decorations. :)

A couple of weeks ago Micah and I attempted (key word attempted) to go to a haunted house with my friend Sheridan & her guy Brian. The Fear Factory wasn't open unfortunately :( so we went to dinner instead at a restaurant in sugarhouse called Flatbread -- suuuuuper yum! 

Plenty of scary-awful-acting movies have been watched recently on netflix and hbo. Micah and I use the apps on our Xbox and I freakin love it. They're seamless and easy to use Xbox smartglass app on our cells. I heart technology. 

We just had our Russell family Halloween party.. Way fun! We were Ghostbusters.  I got the idea when I was watching ... Ghostbusters ... On netflix. Love that classic horrrrrible special effects movie haha. Micah has been wanting to get Carhartt jumpsuits/coveralls for both of us for a while now, so this was kind of the perfect excuse to buy them. Surprisingly enough IFA had the coveralls for only $79 each. Score! I know it sounds crazy expensive for a costume (which that totally is) but for all of our Moab outings and jeep trips they will be used plenty. 

I bought some nerf guns from the DI that Micah spray painted black, taped vacuum hoses to the handles, & stuffed the tubing into backpacks. Perfect ghost killing guns for literally $2.  :)

I hand-sewed these ghetto-fantastic name tags & ghostbusters signs. Impressive, right?  :P

Olive was the Stay Puft monster. 

I found the idea online, but seriously no one was selling one. *sigh* I was hoping this halloween would be hands-free but apparently that was not meant to be.

Bring out crafty-manda. 

I used a plain white onesie, bought blue cotton fabric (Joann's happened to have my exact color in a scrap so it was super cheap), red ribbon (I bought a little bigger than I probably needed so that I can re-use it for Christmas gifts), and red & blue string.

And I should've taken pics as I went but total fail, I didn't take any. I hand-sewed this because the blue cotton was soooo thin I didn't trust my sewing abilities enough. So I used the blue string and just did a simple backstitch on it for the blue. Then for the ribbon I switched to red & pretty much just made a mess of sewing the middle of the ribbon to the onesie, then tied the bow once it was properly attached.

For her hat, I bought a sweet white Hogle Zoo hat from the D.I. I flipped it inside out and sewed a band of blue cotton (again I totally failed at taking a pic during...) this time with my sewing machine, threading the blue string through. Because the hat was pooled out to protect from the sun, I had to fold and sew as I went, to make the hat actually stay on. I just folded over where the hat already had seam marks so that it was less bunchy.

I then hand-sewed the ribbon onto the top of the hat (with red string) and cut the tails to have a fun end shape. I used a silver sharpie to write the "Stay Puft" on her hat and then boom! Done.  :)

Oh and I put a red tutu on miss Livi to complete the costume. I didn't like the look of it without it... too boyish. Micah of course thought the tutu was ridiculous before I put it all together. No complaint from him after! ;)

General Conference Weekend

I love general conference! I always have, even as a kid. Although, my reasons for liking it back then was because I could typically sleep in, got to sit in the cultural hall/chapel & watch all the talks on a big projected screen and didn't have to go to class. That was way back in the day before the sessions were broadcast or available at home. Then when my family moved to Utah in 2002 I went to my first actual conference in person. I thought it was so cool! Utahn's get spoiled, used to all of the close Mormon amenities that you'd expect to find in the biggest LDS state... But since I grew up in Washington state I watched that general conference with such open eyes, soaking in every detail and talk given. Now... can I tell you anything that was said in it? Nope. I know President Hinckley spoke though haha. 

This conference weekend I wanted to get some of that newness back. Some of that eyes-wide-open vibe. So instead of half listening to the Sunday broadcasts of conference while I played on my phone or looked at Pinterest, I made myself sit down and genuinely watch them; my phone open to type down notes & anything that popped into my mind as important. 

The weekend started out with Micah and I going up to Midway to his parents' cabin and staying the night with his parents. It was SO fun to get out of the valley and up to Midway. I love it up there. Such a peaceful escape. And the cabin sits on 24 acres of the Russell's property, backed by a state park so they are very much secluded and removed from the bustle of everyday life. It's the anti-zombie compound haha. ;)

It's so beautiful up there I had to snap a quick pic of all of us. 

And another.  ;)

We took Zoey & our friend's dog Kota up with us (we're puppy sitting for them) and they seriously could not have been happier. 

Their morning cuddles on my bed before I started packing up for our trip. 

Zoey & Kota after running around for like 20 minutes straight. Yes, Kota's eyes shoot lasers. 

Couldn't be happier. 

Zo waiting to pounce on Kota. 

Micah and I left Olive with Dianne to go on a run... To keep my half marathon training in line. We ran 7 miles! Gah! I think once I can run for 5 miles straight I should be able to finish the 13.1 miles and not die. But it was tough!

An hour and a half, 7 miles. Gah! I was exhausted at the end but super proud of myself. Micah and I kept the average mile pace to 12:44 which isn't terribly fast, but we kept running for a really good portion.

Zoey tripped me up, little stinker... She got spooked by a garbage can... Totally tripped me and I scraped my shin. Ugh. Thankfully I had a jacket with thumbie holes so my palms were protected. :/ still sucked. 

I ran 5 miles last week, twice. My goal is to run whatever the mileage, faster the second time by at least 1 minute. I beat my time by 2 minutes! So Saturday was a "kick my butt" day so that on Monday when I run 6.5 miles it will be easier since I didn't die doing 7 miles. That's the theory at least hahaha. We'll see.  ;)

Saturday afternoon we drove home. I loved getting to see such a beautiful drive down the canyon in the daylight. It's such a fun drive. 

The pups were exhausted. 

Micah had priesthood conference with the guys that night, so I went to dinner & a movie with my mom & sister. It's a tradition to go out while the guys are busy and hang out & spoil ourselves. We met up at The District and had a quick dinner at Snappy Service (yumm burgers) before our show Austenland. 

Sooooo good! Seriously, it was the best chick flick movie I've seen in forever. 

It's kinda interesting.. A year ago, when I went out to dinner with my mom & sister to Chili's (for priesthood conference) I seriously ate sooooooo much! Like I had a hollow leg. I found out 2 days later that I was pregnant with miss Olive haha. 

Sunday morning we went over to my patents' house for ebleskivers. Ebleskivers are these yummy little pancake balls that you can put powdered sugar or syrup on and they're amazing. My family has this gross tradition to try and eat as many ebleskivers as possible... Micah proudly holds the record of 34! That's on top of having strawberries, bacon, sausage, hot chocolate, orange juice, etc. Blech! The most I have handled was 18... Which is tons! So much dough in your stomach. My brother Mark was tied with my brother-in-law Dan for the record -- 33 -- but last conference Micah beat him. Poor Dan had to get his appendix removed after one year... No joke!! Micah's appendix is still kickin it though. For now haha. 

No one even competed for the record on Sunday though.  :P

Liveraci (newest nickname courtesy of me) playing with my brother Johnny. 

And getting super annoyed with my brother Mark. 

She sacked out on my dad's lap.  :)

After the morning session of conference Micah and I went back home & watched the second session on our couch with the pups sleeping on the floor and Olive getting kisses from Micah.

Best weekend with family ever. 

xoxo Mandi