Making your home more meaningful.

On my whole "journey to happiness" while I've been reading the How of Happiness, a lot of cool resources have been stood out to me. I saw this post on pinterest and immediately read, even before "repinning" (because I always do). http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/10-things-that-will-make-you-happier-at-home-174151. It has ten steps to being happier in your home. My most favorite was "# 3. Display sentimental items around your home". 

And that is today's tip for the day.

I really can see how this can make you happier. Seeing pictures of places and people I love always makes me smile. In honor of trying to make this happen, I changed my desktop to this picture:

Freak. How can this NOT make you happy? Beats me! I love this girl. She is my little niece and the only one on my side of the family. Can you say spoiled? Anyways, cheers to todays tip to make your home more sentimental! Have a good, happy, loved-filled day!

Cupcakes from scratch? NO.

Cupcakes from scratch from a box. That actually taste good. See for yourself:

I read once that if you take a box mix and use 1/2 the water and substitute the other half with milk they will turn out fluffier, more moist and like this (see above). Well folks it worked. No more homeade cupcakes. Believe me, they taste just as good if you do that. That's a wrap for my tip of the day! Enjoy your weekend.

Bored but not.

You know when you have plenty of things to do and you feel lazy, boring, and bored but you shouldn't be because you have plenty to do? Or is that just me? Nate is still in Provo and I am home from work having to plan a church lesson, and clean up my gross-ness in the apartment before Nat and Chris get here (last minute visit...yay!!), and get some sleep. That really isn't a lot but it's past midnight and church is in the morning. So now it sounds like more, eh? Instead of cleaning or planning when I got home I spray painted a desk top, attempted home-ade peanut butter and did nothing. I wish I could just want to run a million miles/minute and get so many cool things done. Really, you could accomplish so much in this life if you just did everything you said you would do. Hmm....about tttthhhat.....I think I'll start doing that later...

Tip: Set a timer for how long you have at the T.V. or computer. It will help motivate you to do something good and productive for the rest of your day.

Wait whaaaat?

Yeah, I got that post title/quote from Despicable Me.

So the story begins...Nate bought the new MAC (is that supposed to be capitalized?) operating system called mountain lion. It was supposed to be a fun surprise for me, which it was. But I was worried when a little pop-up exploded on my desktop that said something like "your computer now sucks because microsoft word won't work on it". I then proceeded to look up prices online to show my thoughtful hub. what a newer version of microsoft word would cost. He was bound and determined to work it out for me (yay!) and some things happened over twitter and we got a new version of microsoft office. Ok it's awesome. I love it. It's awesome. I love it. I could say that all over again. All because of this...

I hate figuring this all out in my brain and with my computer calculator. And now I don't have to. Tip #2: do your monthly budget in the NEW excel! By the way...this is just a mock budget, not ours.

Uncovered pictures.

So I found some cutie pictures....actually Courtney did...and she sent them to me. So let me tell you a story...one time there was a girl. Her name was Megan. She used to be fearless. Now she is a scared-y cat and her husband doesn't believe she ever did anything brave. So one day they went to the rope swing and "jumped" from a small ledge and then from a "huge" one. She felt accomplished after about 1 hour of making everyone wait. Tip #1 on blog: be patient. for not everyone is as brave as you.

Nate: "I'm a big strong brave man and I didn't even think twice before jumping."

I think I can I think I can. (dear reader, hold up your pinky finger...that was the size of the branch we were swinging from-or so it seemed in my mind)

Diving in like a lady. Sort of embarrassing.

My hair is wet and like 10 people are staring at me to go. I better do it!!! (and though pictures don't show it I really did. Promise.)

So I guess you could say....

...it's been a while. You know, having a blog that you post pictures on from recent trips is exhausting. I feel like I am trying to keep up but I don't even think two people a day are reading (if so, I'm surprised). I am ready to have a blog where I can be myself and not have to sound all mature...summarizing how great our life is and how great our vacations were and how blah blah blah. I don't know how I got in the habit of that. Ok so I'll admit I may still post some life summaries on our other blog but not as much here. If you love us so much you can ask for an invitation to nateandmeganolsen.blogspot.com. But if you don't care, I don't blame you. 

So I think this blog will be about what I have learned while trying new things. My little black "blog" of tips and tricks. The end.

Paris

Oh how I long to win a trip to Paris. If you do too...go to this link and enter. Maybe it'll be your lucky day?

http://ohhappyday.com/2011/06/goes-to-paris