DaFont is DaCoolest

I just stumbled upon the coolest site, it's called DaFont. It lets you download all sorts of fun fonts for your computer. It's free (for personal use) and super easy to do! Here are a few I downloaded:

I can see these helping me with a lot of future projects!!

Bridal Celebration

Sunday I accompanied Kristie, along with Jill, Tia, and Mrs. Jameson, to the bridal show at The Palace of Auburn Hills. It was so fun, a lot of stuff to look at and a few good ideas came about too. I'm just glad I could say "I'm not the bride!" Those people hound you!

One of the more fun parts of the afternoon was testing out the photo booth. Here are our two seperate sessions:

New 'Do

I have this bad habit of everytime Gary has plans to golf with his buddies, I decide to get my hair done. It's quite an expensive habit to have, really. I had good reason this time, my blonde highlights were beginning to grow out so it was time to go back dark for fall. I also went with an angled bob cut so it's much shorter in the back. The best part is I don't have to curl it! Just blow dry and go...I think I'm likin' it!

(Do you know how hard it is to take an OK picture of yourself? I must have taken 30...yep I'm a nerd)

Goodbye Summer

Labor Day weekend we had the pleasure of staying with the DeVries' up at Walhalla. It was a little different than the 4th of July, it was just Scott and Paula and Gary and I. I've never seen so much of Mackinaw! I don't think she much appreciated Logan :) The weather was PERFECT and we spent both Saturday and Sunday perched on the pontoon boat out on the lake. Saturday night we entertained ourselves at The Rendezvous, luckily this time they had karaoke! I was a bit nervous at first, I'd never sang in front of these people before. But as you can see, I eventually came out of my shell.

(Believe it or not, I didn't take my camera out all weekend! My Aunt captured this one...)

Mom and Dad were staying at Ruster's so we did get to visit with them on Sunday as well. They joined us on Tom and Louise's pontoon and we met up with Randy and Dar for dinner at Emerson Lake Inn. Sunday night we played Euchere and Scott and I definitely dominated. I think it was beginners luck!

Monday we decided to hit the road early so we could stop at the outlet mall in Howell. It's always bittersweet to stop there, such good deals but I always spend too much!

It was the perfect end to summer. Thanks to Aunt P and Scott for having us!

Mother Daughter Weekend

While Gary and the boys were away golfing, I had my mom come stay with me for the weekend. And what an excellent weekend it was! I took the day off Friday and we treated ourselves to some pampering. As a parting gift when I left Mullen, they gave me a gift card to a really nice spa in Novi called Visions. My mom and I both got facials and my, oh, my it was WONDERFUL! It was SO relaxing and my skin felt amazing afterward! Friday night we went for dinner and to see Mama Mia. Great movie if you haven't seen it yet. Makes me want to open a little resort in some remote location!

Saturday we quickly hit IKEA (I say quickly because usually IKEA is in all day trip) and went to Lowes to get some painting supplies. The rest of the day was full of home improvement stuff. We spent most of the day painting (see previous post) but also installed a new programmable thermostat. Saturday night we had Pot Belly for dinner and stayed in to watch a chick flick off of video on demand. We were exhausted!!

Sunday we had cinnamon rolls (a Karsten family tradition) and mom left around noon or so. All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. It was great to be able to spend the whole weekend with just me and mom! :)

(MOM - you cryin' yet?)

ReVamping

Since Gary and I have been in the condo for over 6 months now, we finally decided to do some painting. Originally the whole condo was the same color - boring beige. Well I'm sick of beige! Here are two projects that we've finished in the last month or so.

Project #1: the basement ceilings, hall and stairway

The stairway up to the main floor of the condo was a MESS! Between the previous owners moving in and out and then us attempting to bring in furniture that didn't fit, bringing up all new appliances, bringing back down the too-tall fridge and dented dishwasher and hauling up the right size fridge and dent-free dishwasher, the walls and ceiling really took a beating. We chose what I describe as a cocoa brown, with an official name of Sweet Georgia Brown. I think it looks a million times better!

Project #2: the half bath downstairs

Special thanks to my mom for helping me with this one. We finished the project while Gary was away golfing. I already had a red and black theme going on so we decided to paint the walls a deep red as well. After three coats...voila - we had COLOR!!

Next up: maybe the master bathroom? I'm thinking GREEN!

Courage - If I only had the nerve

Note: I've been slacking so I'm catching up on my blogging this weekend... so when I say this weekend, I don't really mean this weekend. I'm referring to the date of the post :)

Most of you probably know that I've had a hard time adjusting to my new job. Not only do I have a lot of new stuff to learn, I have a lot of new people to try and befriend. Most people who know me well are shocked when I tell them I'm actually very shy. So, being thrown into a entirely new group of people has been very stressful for me. This weekend, one of the girls on my floor threw a small get-together at her house. I was grateful for the invite but scared to death to actually go. Normally I'd make up some silly excuse why I couldn't go or I simply wouldn't go because it wasn't "comfortable" for me. I knew if I was going to try and make friends at work, I had to go. No excuses.


So, I went. And it was fine. Perfectly fine. Comfortably fine. I wonder what all the fuss was about?