Back to Utah 2012

While I felt very useful in Michigan, I did not feel I was reaping the complete benefits of receiving a degree, i.e. working for pay. I pursued employment opportunities in Michigan, but with a poor market, especially for interior design did not have success- especially when everyone hiring entry level design positions required 2 years experience. HOW do you get EXPERIENCE for an ENTRY LEVEL POSITION! I was a little frustrated at my circumstances, but tried to keep hope. Eventually I received an email from the chair of the design department at LDS Business College with an employment opportunity at Ashley Furniture in Salt Lake City as a Visual Display Associate. I emailed them my resume and was glad to have them ask for an interview. I took a trip back to Utah to interview and as a bonus got to visit with my bff Jessica Ellison! The interview was a success and I would go home from my trip just to turn around in 3 weeks and drive out with all my stuff and find a new place to live. I loved my time at Ashley, finally feeling like I was a contributing member of society. I was responsible for managing all the displays in the showroom as well as overseeing all of the accessories including receiving them, arranging them, marking them for sale, and keeping inventory. I even got to paint quite a few walls. It was a surprising amount of physical labor from which I incurred a few injuries:

This was as a result of smashing already broken accessories to smithereens so no one could steal/repair them from our dumpster. One time I almost got stabbed in the eye while hanging some metal artwork that slid off its nail and poked me just under my eye. I don't know how many times I thought I might fall of a ladder, especially while hanging very heavy artwork/mirrors on very high walls. Looking back I'm surprised there weren't more injuries... but then again, I am a bit of a ninja... or as Mom always says- a Monkey.
I also bought my first real purchase- a sofa & love seat! Oddly it was not from Ashley Furniture.

Mom and Dad laugh at me for having purchased living room furniture before purchasing a mattress, but I had priorities, even if they were silly.
Later in the year I did buy a mattress, but not without much thought. In fact, I took advantage of the opportunity to sample mattresses overnight when Ashley Furniture was having their carpets cleaned overnight. Jess met me after work and after the store closed to customers we watched Footloose on the large TV in theater type recliners. Thanks to my position I got a real steal on the mattress I ended up buying. I love it.
While work occupied most of my time there were always fun times. Easter with part of the Ellison clan was nice

Jessica and I also started a "Girls Night" where we invited some of our friends in the ward to have dinner, which evolved into having a white elephant game and we did this once a month, taking a commemorative groupie each time:

 


In the fall I had the coolest opportunity to sing in the choir for the General Relief Society Meeting and it was so neat!

It was a really great time.

5 Years Later

Shoot- I put this off for way too long now and while I feel like my life has not progressed as much I might have expected I'm overwhelmed at how much I have to catch up on and how many changes have happened. I lived at home in Michigan for only a year and loved every minute of family time, but working on expanding my circle of friends and potential companions was disappointing. I attended the singles ward but didnt make any connections I wanted to pursue. I did enjoy my calling as a relief society teacher though. And where home was concerned I really wanted to start my own home and having two birds trying to feather one nest is difficult, although Mom and I did successfully work on some pretty fun projects which I am quite proud of:

I got my bedroom in order,

Made some artwork for Mom's formal living room, which we painted green and got a purple rug to go with,

and one of my favorite projects was turning an upstairs bedroom into the best craft room! We tore out the carpeting and painted the sub-floor navy blue with stenciled birds and flowers, followed by a nice coat of polyurethane. We planned for all the desk space we would need for cutting fabric, sewing machines, paper and all that good stuff as well as all the storage we would need to hide any unfinished projects and all our supplies not in use. We switched out the light fixture and added pendant lights in the corners to get a good view on anything we would work on.

 So, with a fabulous room to work on all the other projects I got busy! I made this happy headband for my niece Alice.

 Mom and I also added a pergola to the front porch which had been very un-sheltered for a while. The wisteria growing on the side was part of our motivation because it needed somewhere to travel.

 Doing projects is so fun, but it seems every time we get a brilliant idea for a project the planning process its all sunshine and butterflies with the sky as our limit... until we actually get into the thick of the work feeling it was a bad idea, getting in over our heads, wishing we could just get it finished instead of taking 5 trips to the hardware store in one day. However, we always push through and reach our goal with something to be proud of.

 We also redecorated a bedroom for Mom&Dad's good friends the Belchers for their grandson Gabe, who would be spending a lot of time in their home being confined to his room because of an illness. I love that we were able to do something so fun with such an awesome theme!

I also turned the formal dining room into a play room... because at Grammies house there's gotta be a play room!

(pics to come)

While living at home I also had the great privilege of spending lots of time with my sister and her family! Adrienne and Bryce had 2 awesome girls at that time and we spent time together at least once a week.

We went to the Ford factory where we took a bus to get there, we then went to a McD's with a play place for the girls to get their wiggles out.

Then Easter came and we had to celebrate of course:

I have noticed that I have a tendency to be way more enthusiastic than necessary where children are concerned:

For Mom's birthday we surprised her by taking her to a skating rink with the kids and rolled the night away! It was super fun- just like my Mom.

For the 4th of July we went to downtown Detroit where they have an excellent fireworks show we were privileged to watch from the GM building where Adrienne's friends in her ward worked.

For My birthday we went bowling, which was also super fun- I love doing any activity with my favorite people!

I really do love these girls!

For Halloween I dressed as Snow White- awesome costume a la Valerie Asvitt! I have always liked Snow White for some reason so I finally went with it for my favorite holiday. 

We frequented the Great Lakes Crossing mall regularly as it was 5 minutes from Adrienne's apartment and had an excellent play area for Ollie... not to mention the merry-go-round she couldn't get enough of:

We also went to the zoo where we got to feed a giraffe! It was pretty cool, although Ollie kept as much distance as she could while in my arms.

My year in Michigan was just what the doctor ordered for a recharge after 3.5 years away at school without family nearby on a regular basis. I will always cherish that year.