Saying goodbye to 2011

Well, tomorrow will officially be 2012 and like everyone else, I've been thinking about 2011.  Here are the events of what made 2011 memorable for the Walkers.  In no particular order....

1)  We finished wood paneling/Wainscoting our living room and redecorated it to be French parlour, complete with 2 wingback chairs and a settee that I reupholstered myself.  (I took a 6 week upholstery class, so it looks legit.)

2)  I graduated (finally) from Brigham Young University-Idaho with a Bachelor's in Communications with minors in English and Business.

3)  Aaron turned 30 and had a guy's golfing weekend to celebrate.

4)  My sister Emily came to live with us for 4 months on her off-track from college while she was working in Sacramento.

5)  We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.

6)  We went to Disneyland with Aaron's side of the family.

7)  We went on a 2 week Mediterranean Cruise to Rome, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt.

8)  In our ward at Church, Aaron has been serving as a Ward Missionary and I have been serving as the adult Gospel Doctrine teacher.

9)  Aaron and I both got promotions at work.  Aaron is now a Tax Manager and I am the Lead Orthodontic Assistant.

10)  We have started and almost completed all of our paperwork for adoption through LDS Family Services.

11)  We attended my sister, Heidi's wedding to Aaron Gillming.

Wow!  I guess we were a little busy this year.  It's nice to look back over the year at all the things you've done.  It makes the year memorable and makes you feel like you accomplished something.  Here's hoping 2012 is just as good!  (Did that feel like a Christmas letter?  Hopefully not.  LOL.)

Mediterranean Cruise

Yesterday we got back from our 10 day Mediterranean Cruise departing from Rome and making stops to Olympia, Greece; Athens, Greece; Ephesus, Turkey; and Cairo, Egypt.  We went to Rome 3 days early to take in the sights.  It was an amazing trip and since I took hundreds of pictures, I'll just give you the highlights.  This is bare bones, mind you.

Rome

The Colosseum

Four Rivers Fountain by Bernini

The Pantheon

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City

Inside St. Peter's Basilica with Altar designed by Bernini

The Pieta by Michaelangelo

St. Peter's Square

Peter holding the keys

Castel Sant'Angelo

Ancient Rome

Michaelangelo's Moses

Trevi Fountain

St. Teresa in Ecstasy by Bernini at the Church Santa Maria della Vittoria

Olympia

Columns at the site of the Ancient Olympics ruins

The Melissa Statue.  (My name is Greek....)

Hera's Altar where the lighting of the Olympic Flame takes place

Athens

On our way to the Acropolis.  The houses were so cute!

The Parthenon

Ephesus

The Celsus Library

View from the cruiseship on our balcony

Egypt

The Grand Pyramid at Giza Plateau

I love this picture!

Camel ride on the Sahara

The Sphinx

My kiss with the Sphinx

The Step Pyramid.  First pyramid ever created.

The Sound and Light Show at the Pyramids

The Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Picture we took of Tahrir Square where the riots were going on in Cairo

Cruising down the Nile in our Felluca boat

New Camera....New Hobby

Okay, so I've always had an interest in photography, which started back in high school.  Now Aaron and I just got a really nice camera.   Finally I can take the kinds of pictures I've always wanted to take.  Thank-you Canon!!!  Here are a couple of shots I've taken recently when playing with my camera:

Taken at Muir Woods

I love this one!

This one was taken at the Governor's Mansion.

You're probably going to see a lot more pictures on my blog because I'm now taking more pictures than I ever have (and I used to take a lot).  It's so much fun though!



Et Voila....mon petit settee

Finally, my French parlour look for my living room is complete.  I have finished my settee and I'm thrilled with how it has turned out.  That upholstery class was one of the best decisions I ever made!  Check out the results.


BEFORE



AFTER

Now this fits in more with my theme.  And it's a whole lot more interesting.  I fell in love with this fabric and knew it was the one right away.  I love the French script on it.  It totally fits my decor.  So here's the before and after of the living room.

BEFORE

AFTER



It was hard to get a good angle so you could see the entire redo because the "parlour" is small, but in any event, here it is.  I'm still debating on doing curtains in this room.  So you may see that in the future too.

Hollywood....finally!!

After finally getting my Bachelor's Degree at the end of July, Aaron took me to Disneyland and Hollywood to celebrate many agonizing years of hard work.  With my new Coach purse in tow (my graduation gift to myself), we set out on Sunset Boulevard like so many others to see the stars....

Magazine Project

At the risk of being dorky, I am posting the layouts from my latest group project from my Rhetorical Studies class.  This represents weeks of school work and group effort.  In the class, we submitted articles to to other magazines and classmates submitted to ours.  I designed and completed this magazine from cover to cover, includine all advertisements.  My classmates provided the articles and my group members helped with editing.  However, as I was the only one graphically inclined, I took charge of the design.  And I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out.  We decided to do a magazine geared towards teen sports and this is the winter addition.  The cover is my beautiful cousin, Leah.

So there you have it.  This was the funnest group project I ever had in all my college years.  Glad I took the class.  It was one that I was dreading too.  Life's funny like that!