Shelby's Graduation Pictures

My Family Room...

We have been in our new home for almost a year now and as spring approaches I am wondering if my husband is right...our family room/great room is to dark, this is a good thing if it's where your family gathers to watch movies:) but we don't believe in a TV in the family room/great room off the kitchen...it's annoying when you're trying to visit and the TV is blaring in the background (no offense to those who love their TV room as part of their main living area, I don't judge:)...and I can understand if you're sports fans but if you know us you know we don't watch any sports...none). We have a sound system instead and enjoy music in the background as we gather with friends and family. All of that being said...the one place I would love unstoppable light happens to be the darkest part of our home. At first I disagreed with removing the valances that currently hang in our family room...they are so cute and I love they way they match our stuff so well, but as you can see in the picture...they block an awful lot of light, so I am planning to remove them and hang panels like the ones in our front sitting area (earlier post) Below is the before shot, and I will post the middle and end to this dilemma... wish me luck!

Cooking Class Fun!

{Pic from gathering of friends website}

For those of you who don't know...I go to a cooking class called "Cooking with Brook" here in Daybreak, it's made up of a few ladies from the neighborhood and Brook my neighbor two doors down who teaches us everything food (she is the most unbelievable cook I have ever known)! We learn everything from how to make homemade chicken stock to bread making (I love the bread making!:) We recently started going to each others homes and teaching a skill we have ourselves (Look for my post from November, I chose decorating for parties...cooking is not a skill I have yet).
This month we took a field trip to Michelle Huxtables home...Michelle is the author of several AMAZING cookbooks "The gathering of friends" series. It was incredible for me...not just the cooking part but her home is beautiful! She has been a decorator/designer/home builder, ect. for 20+ years and what an amazing home she has. I didn't take any pics...trying to be respectful, but her cookbooks include pictures of place settings and many of those were taken in her home.
If your looking for an inspiring, makes you want to cook and entertain type book...I highly recommend any of her books. They are like mini works of art..and worthy of your coffee table or the perfect gift.
Visit www.thegatheringoffriends.com for details on how to get her books.
Thank you to Michelle for opening her home and her heart to a bunch of "foodies", you are truly a gracious host and an incredible human being!

{pic from gathering of friends website}

Check out the "Cooking with Brook" blog for great recipes, fun pictures and ideas galore!
www.cookingwithbrook.blogspot.com

So busy is still my middle name!

Yep I am still working non stop and when I am not working I am with my girls doing whatever they are doing... Violin concerts, Dance competitions, you name it we do it:)
But today (Sunday) I am taking back for myself...reading, blogging, planning, and a quick phone call to my mom!
I am currently in the middle of planning out my yard...or should I say yards:) both side yards and the front (I live in Daybreak and we don't have backyards, we have garages and alleys) This might seem a little obsessive since it's really not "spring" yet but I must submit my plans to the Daybreak gods and hope for their approval:) I am not planning anything to elaborate but I really want a beautiful space...I have included one of the pictures that is giving me inspiration and as I find more I will post them too. This should be a fun summer, not only living in Daybreak with tons to do everyday but also a whole new house and yard to make mine...stay tuned!
I have a walkway just like this from our front yard to our side yard, I also have the exact same rock path...so what else do I need? These beautiful plants and a green thumb is all! We will see what I can do:)

SO BUSY!

My weekends have gotten away from me...and that has meant no posts:(
Well here's a run down of the fun!!
Rod Works will be opening our Clearance center soon and having a warehouse sale too...what does this mean? It's where I have been every weekend this month:) Shelby too, she has been currently working in the clearance center during the day and then Carters at night, she is soooo her mother...work work work. We have also had the Coopers down for the weekend and a trip to the boat show (we are not buying just fun to look, BTW...Cobalt is my new favorite brand of boat, they are just plain SEXY:) Our friends Dave and Tammy were here on a ski weekend (from Colorado, apparently skiing in CO sucks and costs an arm and a leg) it was great to see them too! Throw in cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping and well that's it the weekend is gone...bye bye.
I have however made a few more improvements in our home and here are the pics...
I am not sure what the plan was with these cornices...they are fun fabric and very well made but the darn things block so much light so they had to go. (they were here when we moved in, fabric was coming out the bottoms but I neglected to take a pic of that before Kevin started demolition)

That's my hubby taking the hideous things down:)


Let there be light! I left it this way for a week while I decided what to do...and both my girls are now so used to every inch of our house being decorated they kept saying..."it feels like we just moved in, please put something back up" funny I now have two decorators in training:)


The finished product...
I love our high ceilings and I really wanted to show them off! I went with rods from my work...they are custom made so I get exactly the length I want. The curtains are from Ikea..I searched all the usual places but in the end they all carry the same chocolate linen curtain and at $10 a panel Ikea was the cheapest. The room itself is still a project in the works but I am very happy with the window treatments!

So You Think You Can Dance!

So you think you can dance tryouts were here in SLC two weekends ago and Kevin got the girls and I tickets!!! It was amazing...seeing Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy in person was awesome. The dancers are truly unbelievable and if you think they are fun to watch on TV try seeing them up close and personal...some will make you cry:) Shelby was glued to every move, while Payton asked how long this was going to take...that's my girls for you, always at opposite ends of the fun!
Get all SYTYCD details by clicking here!

Kevin's 40th Birthday

Kevin's 40!!

We had a party at our house with friends and family...and what a party! Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate this joyous occasion. Enjoy the pics and if you didn't make it, you were missed:)

Great food and fun drinks!


Many photos ops!


Well he is 40 now!

Special thanks to Charlie and Denise for bar-tending and help with food, Katie for her moral support;) and James and Diane for .....EVERYTHING, we can't pull this stuff off without ya!

A little of me in the house

Not religious just beautiful:)

I love crosses, and I collect from them from all different places. A cross wall somewhere in my house has always been the plan but I had originally planned on putting them in a more personal spot, like my bedroom or my sitting area but after lots of thought I decided on this wall because I love they way they look next to our fountain. This is a wall that leads from the front door into the family room/kitchen area...It might be a bit much for some but I love them and couldn't be happier with their placement. (and the bonus is...you can see them from my front door so no wandering church peeps come a knocking:)

The thermostat is not the greatest of accents but hopefully the bright fun colors catch your eye long before the white box.

Kevin's Idea!

Cigar Art

My husband Kevin loves cigars...and all the cool stuff that goes with them. He came up with this FANTASTIC idea for art above our computer desk. Cigar box tops all layered and framed. He got the cigar boxes from the Tinder Box ($1 or $2 each).
I bought deep Ikea frames for $20, layered and glued the cigar box tops on the backboard of the frame and there you have it.... really cool art for our office.

A little different blog for 2011

This year I'm thinking I'd like to blog about a little more than just what we are doing every weekend...as I read a book called "An affair with a house" I can't help but want to share how amazing our new home is and how much fun I am having decorating it. I am truly obessed with every little detail. This is going to be a full year of ideas brought to life, from a possible fireplace in the living room to how the entire outside of our home will make a transformation this summer.
So this week marks the begining of "My affair with this house", it will be exciting to see where we end up a year from now and how many of us live to tell about it:)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the Crockett Family!
2010 brought many changes...the biggest being our move to Daybreak. We are loving our lives here, I get home in time for dinner and family fun, We are falling head over hills for our new home as we make it our own. The girls have settled in nicely with their new school and new friends, they are excited for summer to come again so they can swim, hang out at the lake or ride their new beach cruisers! I am in total decorating mode so my weekends are spent looking through books, searching the internet and shopping, even Kevin has started giving opinions about rooms and what we should do next...so all in all this has been a great year for our family.
We wish all of you a Happy New Year and we can't wait to see what adventures 2011 brings!
Love,
The Crockett Gang