Amanda In Wonderland

It took me forever to decide what I wanted to dress up as for the Disneyland 10k and when I finally did decide, I waited WAY to long to get started on it! I figured making a tutu would be no big deal and I'd have plenty of time! Then August FLEW by and before I knew it, I only had three days until I left for California and still no tutu!

I did get extremely lucky though, because Hobby Lobby had their spools of tulle on sale that week and Joann's had a coupon for 60% off one cut of fabric! That 60% off coupon saved my life!! I about died when the lady told me my total!! Sparkly tulle is crazy expensive!!! 

Just in case you've never made a tutu, let me break it down for you! 

First, you have to spend a ridiculous amount of time cutting the tulle into strips! 

I started out thinking these strips needed to be all the same width and length.

But after five or six strips, I realized who the heck cares if they are even or not!! 

Second, you have to tie the tulle to the waistband.

This part really isn't that big of a deal.... just time consuming!! 

Especially when you have a large area to cover! 

The first night I worked on it, I was at my cousins' house....Their kitchen was covered in glitter by the time I left! THANK ladies for letting my make a mess of your house AND for getting me started! 

The second night I sat on the tile, on the cold bathroom floor, because I figured that would be way easier than trying to vacuum it out of my carpet! My thumb hurt from cutting all those dang strips of fabric one by one and my back was aching from sitting on the hard floor for four hours...... and BONUS...

I ran out of blue tulle!! Awesome.....

Day three.....(which also just happens to be the day beforeour plane left).

I worked on the tutu during my lunch break.....and ran out of white tulle.....

{obviously I am NOT good at sewing and have VERY poor judgment on just how much tulle it takes to make a tutu}

So I had to stop at Joann's on my way home from work to get blue tulle and my sister went to Hobby Lobby to get white. THANKS Kaylee for making an HL run for me! 

There was no way I was going to hang out on the tile again, so I sat outside tying my skirt.

This is the part of the story where life got a WHOLE lot easier! 

I have this awesome neighbor..... Kristen is her name! She saw me sitting outside, surrounded by a ridiculous amount of tulle, and came over to find out what was going on. Kristen is a sewing master...... seriously, she sews some pretty awesome stuff. And because of her awesome skills, she came up with a MUCH better and MUCH faster way to cut the tulle!! It saved me SO much time.... and saved my thumb too!

Not only that, but she sat on the grass with me and helped me tie the tulle to the skirt! Yes, she is one awesome friend! THANKS Kristen!! 

I sat outside until it was completely dark. My mom had to come and help me trim my skirt.... all while my other great neighbor, Kristine, came over and trimmed my bangs. And yes... they did this at the same time! 

Fifteen yards of tulle, ten hours, one sore thumb and one humongous mosquito bite later, I was finally ready to be Amanda in Wonderland! 

Oh.... 

And how did this massive skirt GET to California you ask?

I had to shove it in a garbage bag, suck out as much air as possible, and then put in my a carry on bag.... Yes..... it took up almost the ENTIRE bag by itself.....But it made it!! 

By the way....
You'd think that with such a crazy ordeal that there would be lots of pictures of this process....
Nope! 

This is all there is.................

A Beautifully Deceiving Food

I had my first sushi experience back in November.

It's probably important to note that I DO NOT like fish.....

When my cousin Kandi suggested we go, I honestly

wasn't too thrilled (sorry Kandi), but I thought it would

probably be a good experience to try something new, so 

I went with it.

Looking at the menu, I had no idea where to start!

Once, on a vacation with my friend Christine in

Seattle, I tried smoked salmon. It really wasn't as

bad as I thought, so I was looking at rolls that

had salmon in them. 

Kandi suggested I try the Philadelphia roll since it

had both salmon and cream cheese. I also got a

Hawaii roll because it said it was deep fried and I

figured I could eat deep fried salmon, cream cheese

and crab. 

Before I tell you the rest of the story, 

I do have to say that sushi is very pretty food!!

The presentation of the rolls is really awesome

and makes them look absolutely delicious! 

{Philadelphia roll}

{Hawaii roll} 

So these pretty sushi rolls come out and I start

to think they really might not be so bad!

I had Kandi take a picture of me with the roll

so I could show my dad I was actually eating

sushi! 

And then things went downhill... 

I dropped the Philadelphia roll in the soy sauces...

And started to get really nervous about eating raw fish......

I shoved the whole roll in my mouth and bit down....

And it was bad....

REALLY bad....

My brain was saying "Just chew and swallow, chew and swallow"... 

While my mouth was saying "Get it out! Get it out NOW"! 

I was caught between the two and didn't know what to do...

I tried to drink some water.....

Thinking that would drown the fishy flavor.

But that made it worse.

I had a mouth full of water and sushi...

And I couldn't take it any more!

And.......

The sushi came back out.....

All over my face, my shirt and the bench next

to me. 

All while the poor Japanese waiter started at me with

huge eyes and my cousin laughed hysterically! 

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of that part.

Although, they probably would have been pretty funny!! 

But.... there was still the Hawaii roll......

I REALLY did not want to eat it.

But part of my brain was saying "It's deep fried. It will be better"

Nope! 

I could only take one small bite before I was done!

I did, however, swallow that piece! 

Mostly because I didn't ever try to really chew it at all! 

So.... needless to say,

I will NOT be eating sushi any time soon...

Or EVER again if I can help it!!! 

The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

A month ago I went with my parents and sister to the ice castle in Midway. Everyone was posting all kinds of cool pictures on Facebook and Instagram, so I was really excited to go up and take a few of my own!
We went later in the evening when the lights were on and it was awesome! The only thing that could have made it "cooler" (pun totally intended) was if they had blasted the Frozen soundtrack the whole time!!
Olaf was there though.... and I swear one of us got a picture.... but now I can't find it!

Instead, here is an overload of pictures from that night!

After the ice castle, we did what any self-respecting Utahan does in the winter...... we drove into Heber to get delicious shakes from Dairy Keen!! It was an awesome way to spend MLK day!!

Fast Fact Friday

In middle school we had the option to take Spanish or French. Even back then I had all of these big dreams about visiting Europe, particularly Paris, and so naturally I signed up for French.

Fact: I was NOT good at French....

But, I did enjoy watching the talking pineapple videos....

In fact... I loved saying the French word for pineapple........... "ananas" (aw-naw-naw)! I got pretty good at counting to 100.... and I definitely knew all of my colors..... 

But sadly, the fact is.....

Je ne parle Francais :0( 

Fun Foto Friday

Happy Valentines Day

Or, in my case, Single Awareness Day.

I made this super cute (an easy) craft with my friend Tiffany a few weeks ago

and I LOVE it!! Thanks Tiff for letting me steal all of your supplies! 

Fun Foto Friday

Last week we got to babysit my niece.... who is seriously the cutest little thing ever!! She is also one of the best natured babies you will ever meet!! But toward the end of the evening she got kind of upset...... poor girl!! So we turned on Tinker Bell and she calmed right down.
She's a Disney girl at heart...... just one of the many reason why I love her!!

Good Eats Utah

A couple months ago, my friend Miranda and I started talking about all of the cool restaurants downtown that we've always wanted to try but never have. We sort of made this goal to try one new place a month and we picked a date for our first adventure.

The restaurant: Settebello 
Where: 260 S 200 W, Salt Lake
What: Authentic Italian style pizza AND gelato 

I had actually already been here once, but I loved it so much that I convicted Miranda we needed to go so she could try it! I LOVE their yummy pizzas!! If you go, I can personally vouch that the Bianca pizza is delicious! After lunch we walked next door to get gelato and it was pretty good too. They had a rose flavored gelato, which Miranda decided to get, and it was pretty interesting. I had never heard of flower flavored ice cream before!

After lunch we headed over to City Creek to check out the mall, since neither of us had been before. It was there that I got a pretty cool bar or rosemary shampoo and a bottle of interest dry shampoo!

Before we headed home we decided to stop one more place.... just to make the drive downtown worth it!

The restaurant: Bruges
Where: 336 W 300 W, Salt Lake 
What: Waffles and Frites 

My cousin Michelle actually told me about this place. This was right around the time that I discovered the waffle truck and it was almost never in Salt Lake county. Miranda and I decided to go and compare the two. Bruges was pretty good..... their waffle wasn't as sweet as Waffle Luvs..... but it was still a nice treat! It looks like they have a few new options since we went though, so it would be kind of fun to go back and try some other things!

After that first adventure, we kind of lost sight of our goal. The summer got busy... the holidays came so quick..... and all of the sudden it was a new year!! I think we both made an unspoken resolution to be better about our new restaurant goal, because in January we made another trip downtown.

The restaurant: Vosens Bread Paradise
Where: 328 W 200 S, Salt Lake 
What: German Bakery 

I actually heard about this one from my friend Allison's Instagram page. And who the heck wouldn't want to visit a place with "bread paradise" in its name!! We started by getting delicious sandwiches on some of the softest sourdough bread I have ever had!! We also took some time to look at all of the cool German foods they sell.

We couldn't leave this paradise without some dessert so we got a couple of pastries to share. The first was a chocolate filled dessert that was pretty yummy. But the best was some kind of caramel pastry.... seriously to die for! I wish I would have taken a picture of the sign so I could remember what they were called!! This is what is looked like......

Any one have any idea what that is called? I know it was two words.... and it might have started with an "A"....
We also got some pretzel rolls and cheese rolls to take home. Loved this place!! I would definitely go again..... even if it was just for dessert!



So now we have this running list of places we want to go and I can't wait to try them. If you have any cool/yummy/small/family owned restaurants that you like, let me know! I would love to add them to our list!!