What's that smell?

So remember how yesterday I said I was going to show you some revamped Halloween decorations from last year? Ya, that didn't happen.

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I got home last night and was hit by an AWFUL smell-you know the kind where you really hope the smell hasn't traveled to your neighbors apartments and you realize it's probably coming from the two day old pile of dishes in your sink?

No? That hasn't ever happened to you? Oh. Well it happened to me last night and I'd be lying if I said it was the first time. Mojo and I generally try and get the house cleaned up and the dishes done before we go to bed each night but since I've been feeling so under the weather lately the cleaning has taken a drastic turn for the worse.

After encountering that smell and thinking that a bomb must have gone off in our house at some point during the day I realized it was time to hunker down and get some cleaning done. It took longer then I expected but I was so happy when it was done. Happy but exhausted!

I had just enough energy to run a few errands and then I was done for the night-I had reached my limit. I did start working on my Halloween wreath but Mojo and I were watching Modern Family and I got a little distracted. (If you haven't ever seen that show stop what your doing and go to hulu.com and watch it-you won't be disappointed!)

I did manage to spend $26 at the Dollar Store last night. Mainly on Halloween items.....

So I may not have gotten anything from my craft to-do list done but my house is clean now so I don't have to worry about my neighbor's realizing the stink was coming from us.

What do you do to stay on top of the mess?

M is for Murder!

My lovely sister and I have been hard at work planning our annual Murder Mystery Dinner-and because I'm a little crazy I've decided to throw TWO Murder Mystery Dinners!!

So now I'm working my butt off trying to plan these two parties, redo my living room, finish my bedroom, work on my craft room, and I'm still trying to get over this bug. I'm beginning to think I may have taken a little to much on.

My sister and I are planning a Vampire themed party to go along with our Vampire themed murder mystery. We have been having so much fun planning it all together and my sister is amazing. She's been the crafty one in our family for years and I'm always blown away with the fun stuff she comes up with.

We've been busying hitting pretty much every DI (local goodwill) through the Salt Lake Valley getting candles, mirrors, picture frames, coat of arms, we got it all. I'm so excited to see it when it's all put together-it's going to look fantastic!

I've been busy assigning characters and getting invites ready to send out but I took a moment today and looked at the Murder Mystery Morgan and I hosted last year. That year we did a will reading for a wealthy old man and the murder took place during the game-it was so much fun! My decorations were sub-par compared to what we're doing this year but everyone had a lot of fun and got so into their characters that it was hard to remember their real names!

I thought I'd share some fun pictures with you of last years event.

Morgan setting everything up before the party

We handed out name tags and clues at the beginning of the party and then had dinner

We served Rachel Ray's Harvest Moon Macaroni and Grilled chicken for Dinner.

After dinner we all headed downstairs for the will reading where the murder was committed! Morgan and I had run through the entire thing before anyone came and had planned it perfectly. As Morgan took everyone downstairs for the will reading (he was the lawyer) I made sure all the lights were off upstairs and then when he got to a certain part in the will I turned off the downstairs light and using a toy gun he made a "gunshot" noise. It was perfect. There was screaming and "fainting" and when the lights came on the maid was dead. My roommate played the maid and she was perfect. 

It was such a fun night and I'm so excited to do it twice this year! Once with my family and once with the new friends we're making in our apartment complex. 

Here are some more fun pictures from last years event-

We all had a lot of fun with it and afterwards I told Morgan this needs to become a yearly tradition. I'm excited to get my Halloween decorations up tonight and revamp a few things from last year that I'll be sharing tomorrow.

I'm still working hard on my living room-it's taking a lot longer then originally anticipated but I hope to be done in a couple weeks. Hope everyone has a great "hump" day and don't forget to link up to Tutorial Tuesday!

P.S. This is what we're going for with our Vampire Party-it's going to look so good!

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Tutorial Tuesday #25

Happy Tuesday everyone! Sorry for not posting yesterday-I'm still trying to kick whatever I have in my system out. I'm on antibiotics for the tonsillitis but I still don't feel great. So after talking to my SIL yesterday I've decided to do a 3 day cleanse. Starting today I'll be eating lots of fruit and brown rice, and drinking lots of water and "detox" tea. I'm hoping it will help reset everything in my body-although I have had to modify just a bit, because I'm taking the antibiotics I do have to eat 1/2 a cup of yogurt a day, I'm hoping it won't affect my cleanse to much.

I've never done a cleanse before so I'm not really sure what to expect-but I have felt really crappy for a few weeks now and I'm hoping this will help.

But enough about me-today is all about you and the awesome projects you linked up last week! You guys come up with the greatest stuff, so without further ado here are the features this week.

Ever since I saw it on Pinterest a while ago I've wanted to make a balloon wreath-I love how Erin's from How to Nest for Less turned out.

Just like the balloon wreath, ever since I saw this on Pinterest I've been meaning to make one. I love how Elise from Elise's Pieces turned out.

Heather from Heather's House to Home shows a great way to update some old looking candles while still have the candle feel. I love the paper she choose and the white candlesticks.

Mary over at Sweetwater Style came up with a great way to protect her laptop when she puts it in her bag. I love the fabric she chose, I may have to do this because I can never find a big enough case for my laptop-thanks for sharing!

Thanks to everyone who linked up last week-be sure to spread the word so the party can keep growing! Can't wait to see what you've been up to lately!

Calling all Guest Bloggers!

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I know your all shocked that I'm posting on a Saturday-it doesn't happen very often. BUT today I want to extend an invitation to all my amazing readers for a chance to guest blog here at Newlyweds on a Budget.

Mojo and I are headed down to Lake Powell during the second week of October for some fun in the sun with my family, while we're down there I'll have limited to no internet access and would love to have some of you take the spotlight here for a little while.

If your interested please email me an idea of what you'd like to post about by next Friday September 30th at Kari {at} morganandkari {dot} com.

Can't wait to hear from you-have a great weekend!

Updates and a Video

Good Morning! Sorry for the lack of posts yesterday but this Newlywed has been sick in bed for the last two days. I woke up with a killer sore throat on Wednesday and after getting out of the shower and realizing I couldn't talk I had to call in sick to work, since most of my job entitles answering a phone.

I felt better Wednesday night but by Thursday morning I had white spots all over my tonsils which generally means that I have strep. The hubbs and I are on a new insurance plan and so to save money, and because it wasn't really an emergency we decided to head to Urgent Care so I could get some meds, get better, and head back to work.

Well with this new insurance, even though we live right next to a hospital, it turns out that the closest Urgent Care is a 15-20 minute drive in a kind of shady part of town. So we drive the 20 minutes and get there about 3:30 to find out the Urgent Care doesn't start until 4:30. That would be a nice piece of information to have on their website don't you think?

So after spending 3 hours at the Urgent Care it turns out I don't have strep but I do have tonsillitis which thankfully isn't contagious but I do have to take some meds for 10 days.

Being sick really sucks, but it helps to have a husband who takes great care of you, I got a caramel apple spice from Starbucks and Wendy's frosties while I was sick. Mojo is way to good to me.

On a happier note, it's Friday and my BIL sent me this video of one of my adorable nephew, Baby C-isn't he the cutest?

And a BIG thank you to everyone who prayed for Baby Z-the results are in, he's been diagnosed with Nystagmus. Nystagmus is an involuntary rhythmic shaking or wobbling of the eyes. Nystagmus can lead to vision loss but thankfully Baby Z's doctor said his was a mild case. They recommend some basic vision therapy for Baby Z and this is where the miracle takes place.

Before Baby Z was born my sister got a job as the Director of Publishing for the School of the Deaf and the Blind here in Utah. Having that job has been a huge help to Baby Z. Because she's such an integrated part of the blind community now she has limitless resources to help Baby Z as he grows up.

She's already looking into some different types of vision therapy they have for babies. It has been a huge blessing for her and her family to have such amazing resources on hand. Thanks again to everyone who prayed for Baby Z, it meant a lot to me and I know your prayers were heard. He is such a sweet, gentle, and happy baby boy and I can't wait to see where life takes him.

Happy Friday everyone! Now that I'm feeling better maybe I'll get a few things done this weekend....or maybe not I'll continue to sit on the couch being lazy, who knows.

Tutorial Tuesday #24

Good Morning! It's bright and early here and I am having a hard time keeping my eyes open. What I wouldn't give for an extra hour of sleep today, really it's my own fault for staying up so late reading last night. But the good news is it's Tuesday and you all know what that means-it's time to feature some of your awesome crafts.

This is seriously my favorite post every week because of how awesome you guys are. I'm inspired by you every week and I love showing your stuff off.

First up we have the lovely Lindsey over at Artsy Fartsy Mama. If you read yesterday's post you know that Lindsey is the one responsible for this lovely new design of mine. She has some great crafts and I'm loving this picture frame name sign-such a clever idea!

I love this newly redone magazine rack by the girls over at Aqua Seventy Six. The color is beautiful.

These easy to make bracelet's by Elise over at Elise's Pieces are so adorable! Such a fun way to bring color to your outfit or they would be great as little gifts for friends and family.

And I love love love these nesting tables by Decor and Harmony @ 4290. I would love to find a good set of nesting tables for my house. I think they look great!.

Everyone who linked up last week did a great job! If you were featured today be sure to grab my new featured button and display it with pride!

Now it's time to party-I would love it if you grabbed my newest Tutorial Tuesday button so that more people can come and party with us!

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I can't wait to see what you guys have all been up to. I've been having fun painting and I'm excited to show it off to you tomorrow!

Say a little prayer

First things first, isn't this new blog design fantastic? I have Lindsey over at Happy Potomus Designs to thank. She did an amazing job. I told her things I liked, things I didn't like, and colors I would like to have with the design and she did the rest.

I can't thank her enough-I'm still trying to learn html and I would never have been able to do the things she's done. She is such a sweetheart and works with you throughout the entire process.

Some of you may know her as Lindsey from Artsy-Fartsy Mama, her craft blog which has been featured her on NOAB a few times.

So if you haven't yet, be sure to check out Lindsey's sites!

Now I want to introduce you to Baby Z. Baby Z is my adorable 4 month old nephew. He is such a cutie and looks just like his daddy. But Baby Z had a rough start to life. He was born, full term, weighing in at only 4 pounds. My sister's umbilical chord had a blood clot in it so baby Z didn't get all the nutrients he needed. Because of that he had to stay in the NICU for a few weeks after he was born.

Of course he's a trooper and has been gaining lots of weight and he loves to smile and coo all day long. But ever since he's been born his eyes have flickered back and forth really fast, almost like he can't focus on things. After a visit with his Pediatrician my sister took Baby Z to a pediatric ophthalmologist to get his eyes check out. Apparently the flickering eyes means that his optic nerve hasn't fully developed.

When an optic nerve doesn't fully develop it can mean a range of things, so to get a better look Baby Z has to have an MRI today. So I'm asking you to please keep a pray in your heart for Baby Z today, and for his mom and dad. They are both being so strong throughout the whole thing but I know it's scary for them.

But Baby Z is a fighter-so no matter what happens today, I know he'll come out on top!

Epic Fail

It's over. I've officially given up-and I hate myself for it.


In case you weren't aware, I'm a perfectionist-through and through. If something isn't perfect, I don't want anyone to know I had a hand in it. It's great at work and school because I can be proud of everything I turn in knowing it's absolutely perfect.


It's also a bad thing, because until perfection is completed I stress and continue to change things so much so that it gets to be rather overwhelming.


The same thing applies to my projects/crafts. If I can't achieve perfection I'm not happy with it. There are many things that I've made that I'm not happy with such as my hands painting that I had such high hopes for, but didn't turn out the way I had in my head, therefore it wasn't perfect. Or my painted jars, that didn't look anything like the ones I had seen on Pinterest, weren't perfect in my mind, therefore they didn't get to far in my decorating schemes.


Well once again I've failed to reach perfection. I've tried so hard to make it work, I've done and re-done it in attempts that each time will get a little better. I've rethought my approach and I've even tried things I probably shouldn't have-and none of it worked.


Covering my cupboards will go down in my history as an epic fail. I just couldn't get it to work. I really did have high expectations from this one. I thought it would be so inventive. I was so excited to show it off in my neighborhoods "Parade of Apartments" we're doing on Saturday.




But I had to finally admit last night that not only did the cupboards not look good, they look BAD! And since I live in Student Housing I can't do anything to harm my cupboards. Whatever I do has to be able to be undone without any effects on the cupboards.


So for now, I've lost hope and my cupboards will stay they way they have always been.

Sorry for the crappy picture-this is from when we first moved in and was taken on my phone

But don't worry it's still going to happen-I just have to figure out a new approach. I'd love any feedback you guys can give me-more heads are always better then one-right?


Hopefully my next project will be an epic success, to counteract the epic fail of this one.


Hope you all have a great Thursday-are you as excited for the weekend as I am?

Tutorial Tuesday Features!

Good Morning everyone! Sorry about not putting up these awesome features yesterday. It was kind of a rough day.

But I'm feeling so much better now and I'm so excited to show off the fun stuff YOU did last week!

So let's jump right in,

La Dee Da Creations made this beautiful pallet cupboard-I haven't jumped on the pallet band wagon but every project I see using a pallet makes me want to!

Aqua Seventy 6 shows off her awesome infinity scarf-love it!

Quilted Euphoria  gives us a glimpse into her cooking life with her zucchini bread recipe. YUM!

And Beautiful Bits of Grace helps us get healthy with her spinich shake, I haven't tried it yet-but I'm going to tonight!

All of the projects that were linked up last week were amazing-and I've been having so much fun reading the fun posts for this weeks link up! If you haven't had the chance yet, be sure to head on over to this week's Tutorial Tuesday  and link up!

And don't forget to grab our button so that you can come party with us every week!

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Tutorial Tuesday #23

Good Morning everyone! Morgan and I haven't been feeling well all weekend so instead of doing features today I'm just going to have the link party and I'll put the features up tomorrow.

I'm excited to see what you guys have been up to this week and to show you my favorites from last week tomorrow-so party on.

You guys are amazing

The bane of my existence at this moment (a.k.a. the kitchen) is still not done. I would like to blame it on my mini bake oven because usually it is the oven's fault. But today I can't, instead I have to blame it on the 50 other things that have to be done before I can even begin to think about cupboards.

And the fact that at 9:00 last night I had reached my end and went to bed. Why yes, at 22 I am a grandma and I do go to be early. Don't judge-it's been a tough week.

So the cupboards remain half done-mocking me each time I see them. I'm beginning to hate those cupboards.

On a better note, the sweet girls over at Vintage Shabby Chicks left me a sweet comment telling me they love my blog and that they've awarded me The Versatile Blogger award! Thank you soooooo much! I'm amazed that I've been awarded 3 blogger awards since I started this blog back in April. You guys are way to good to me!

 If you aren't sure who the lovely girls over at Vintage Shabby Chicks are you need to jump on over and say hi!

In order to accept the award I need to 

1-Thank the person who nominated you 

2-Share 7 things about yourself

3-Nominate 15 blogs you have recently enjoyed.

Well thanks again Sharon and Julie for the awesome award. 

Now for 7 things about me-

1-I'm currently a little obsessed with Dystopia books (ie the opposite of Utopia). I can't get enough of books about "possible" futures. I've recently read Unwind by Neal Shusterman, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, and Matched by Ally Condie. All are fantastic books! 

2-My husband and I have been more entrenched in our nerdiness recently as we've started watching Star Trek episodes on Netflix. 

3-I'm bound and determined to attempt another football cake that will have a better end result then this one did.

4-Speaking of Football, did you know that I love it? I read every article, every stat, every tiny little piece of information I can get my hands on about the University of Utah Utes. My co-workers and I (mostly the men I work with) break down each game and go over every play. We talk about the pros and cons of each player-and we're all hoping Jordan Wynn shows us what he can do at the game tomorrow against USC. 

5-A random person on campus told me my shirt was Frilly and Fabulous a couple days ago and it totally made my day!

6-On Sunday I will have been married 4 whole months! We're pros at this marriage thing :) 

7-On a daily basis I remind Mojo that my camera is broken and how are my readers going to see how beautiful a project is if I can't take a decent picture-I have yet to get a new camera. But I'll keep trying, because getting a good picture for you is just that important to me. 

Now on to some of the blogs I love to read:

Everyone who contributes over at My Favorite Hate Mail

Nikki over at Chef in Training

Michelle from Faith Trust and Pixie Dust

The girls over at Six Sister's Stuff

Kimbo over at A girl and a glue gun

Tam over at Sew Dang Cute Crafts

Ellie over at Vanilla Bean Grils

Lindsey over at Southern Lovely

Ruby from Sarcasm 101

Ashley over at Little Miss Momma

Ashley over at The Shine Project

If you have time today be sure to check these blogs out-each and every one of them have fantastic stories, crafts, and hearts! I'm sure you'll love them as much as I do.

Have a great weekend everyone-I am bound and determined that unless death or dismemberment comes upon me the kitchen cupboards WILL be done! 

Wish me luck!

The season's are changing

I woke up this morning to wind, lots of it. It tugged at my shirt and pulled me along-and it was cold. Cold enough that I wished I had worn more than a sweater.

And as I was waiting my the bus stop worrying about my hair would look with all this wind, (curly hair and wind do not go together) I remembered what I loved most about Fall. I thought I'd share my favorite things about Fall with you today-via Pinterest of course!

I love Fall/Winter clothes-their my favorite! Sweaters, boots, scarfs, coats...my style comes out in the fall. 

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And of course we can't forget about FOOTBALL! Football and Fall are the same thing in my book. They belong to each other. I eat, sleep, and breathe football. And my Utes are going all the way this year!

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Fall means spending time with friends, indoors. Enjoying each other's company and drinking apple cider. 

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And of course if you've been around here for a while you now, I have a small obsession with HALLOWEEN. Actually, there's nothing small about it. In my book Christmas is the only thing that can top Halloween-not even my birthday is as important. You can bet we're going all out this year and doing 2 murder mystery dinners!

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What are some of your favorite things about Fall? Are you as excited as I am? 

P.S. Cupboard update-we have part of it put back together. I got into my mind that I would be able to knock this sucker out of the park in a couple hours. Boy was I wrong. Apparently re-doing the "kitchen" no matter how tiny it is, takes a lot more work than originally anticipated. But we're getting closer!

Tutorial Tuesday # 22

Good Morning everyone-I hope you all had a fantastic long weekend! It's time for another Tutorial Tuesday so let's jump right in shall we?

Smallgood Hearth  gave a tour of her new bedroom-I'm loving the shutter above the bed!

How to Nest for Less  is always showing off great things and I'm loving this fabric scrap wreath!

And I'm loving the baby shower done over at Jessa Jill. I think it looks fantastic!

Great job girls! Be sure to grab and button. Thanks to everyone who linked up last week, I can't wait to see what you've been up to. I've been working hard on my cupboards and hope to show them off tomorrow.

Have a great Tuesday!

To pathetic not to share

Our attempt at making a football cake last night didn't go as well as we thought it would. In the beginning we were going for something like this...

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And because someone (aka my brother) was insistent that there be two layers with chocolate frosting in the middle our original plan was to make two 9x13 cakes, combine them with frosting in the middle, and then cut and shape them into a football.

We got started late, the game was starting, we were on a time crunch, we tried modling the cakes while they were still hot, and this is what we ended up with...

For a while there we thought we could salvage it-but in the end we realized it was a loss cause. But never fear-it was still delicious and we enjoyed it-despite the fact that it looked a little bit like a big pile of poo in the end. 

Happy Friday and a long weekend to everyone! May your kick-off party desserts fare better than mine.