Su'll aria...che soave zeffiretto

I simply do not even know how to begin to talk about this past weekend in Miami.  

I feel absolutely overwhelmed with love and support. I have so many pictures and stories and feelings.

I was meant to meet Rima.  

We are meant to be friends.  

I am meant to listen to her beautiful wisdom.

I had no idea what to expect from this past weekend but it filled my heart and touched my soul.

I had so many burning questions answered and I feel a renewal of my love for my talent.

I love falling in love with music over and over again.

 (me, French Soprano-Rima Tawil, and the conductor Lynn Luce at curtain call)

 (Dr. Mom (Lynn Luce) and me at the reception after our Saturday performance)

(the Ars Flores Symphony Orchestra and Rima)

(Saturday performance)

(Countess and Susanna)

(The most wonderful people I know.  They are my heart. Mom, Dad, me, Husband)

(courtesy of husband's iPhone)

I performed with the Ars Flores Symphony Orchestra in the Miniaci Center in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday.  Then we performed in Miami Beach at the Colony Theater on Sunday.  Rima and I sang the Mozart duet Sull' aria from The Marriage of Figaro.  

It was magic.

I am still processing the whole weekend.

I am speechless, maybe I can form better thoughts tomorrow.

Don't forget your underwear

Why does it always seem that we overbook ourselves during the most busy weeks?

Yesterday during the throws of an allergy attack I took a Zyrtec because I was desperate.  

I don't take medicine.  I don't like it.  Mostly because I had pills shoved down my throat for all of my childhood because I suffered from a BAD case of ADD.........................shiney thing.......la la la...la la la la la....la...........la......................la la.

Ok, back to blogging.

So, yesterday after the Zyrtec, I felt like the walking dead.  I literally almost fell asleep while teaching a piano lesson yesterday.  That poor student, I may have drooled on little Ben Fritz.

Today I have a ZYRTEC HANGOVER. A bad one.  I have a million and one things to do but no energy to do it. HMPF.  

Our flight to Miami leaves early tomorrow morning.  My mom, dad, and John and I will be there all weekend as I will be performing with the Ars Flores Symphony Orchestra and Rima Tawil.  We are staying in a hotel on the beach.

HUZZAH! 

I hope I remember my underwear while I'm packing.  

I'm never taking pills again.

It's ok to forget, as long as you remember.

...but sometimes I forget.

Last night I came home from work feeling a little aggitated.  I was thinking about my schedule this week and I was realizing that I had very little time without there being something I had to do.  This weekend we are leaving to go to Miami for me to perform with the Ars Flores Symphony Orchestra.  I will be singing with a famous French soprano, Rima Tawil.  It's all quite exciting for us but I have been feeling pressure because I want it to go so well.

John and I ate our dinner and then we sat in the living room for a moment.

He was sitting in our blue chair and was trying to serenade me but all I could think about was, "Why didn't he sort the mail?  Why are there 17 pairs of shoes in our 'foyer'?  Why does the house suddenly look so overwhelmingly messy?"

Then I felt like a bad wife.

So often I get distracted with life that I forget to remember the to stop for the special moments. 

When John and I were dating I would drop anything I was doing to hear one strum of his guitar.  I would hang on every word that he sang and would swoon at his feet as I was intoxicated by his music. 

I want to be sure that since we are married now and comfortable that I don't take our special moments for granted just because they happen all the time. 

I never want to be desensitized to the unique and magical marriage that we have.

I want to take every moment inside of myself and commit it to my memory.

So, I took a deep breath and released all of the things that were pulling on my mind and I listened to him play his new creation for me. 

My love was deepened.

Spinning, Laughing, Dancing

Friday night my love and I had a spontaneous love filled dance party in the living room at my parents house.

We were giving my mom and nanny a private performance of the dance that we have been learning with the youth in our church.  Every Tuesday we have been meeting up with about 80 youth and helping them learn the dance that they will be performing for our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, when the LDS Atlanta Temple is rededicated in May.  We have also been asked to help them learn the songs they will be singing for the Temple Cultural Celebration as well.

This assignment has brought us so much joy.  We are so humbled and grateful to play a small part in helping these youth feel the joy of the temple.  We love the temple so dearly and we could not be more excited to finally have the temple open back up.  It has been hard to be without it for the past two years.  We are grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the peace that it brings.

DIY Vintage Birdcage Chandelier

 A few months ago I was racking my brain trying to figure out how to give our bedroom more lighting because I couldn't see Mr. Murphy's hott face like I wanted to!  

Since we did not have any ceiling fixtures in the bedroom, I knew I would have to get creative...

So, I used an old cord I had from a paper lamp I used to think was cool and stuck it inside of a birdcage that we used at our wedding.

I secured the cage to the ceiling with a half inch thick hook, strung the chord to the wall, closed my eyes and said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!", and plugged her in!!

Bam...Homemade Birdcage Chandelier!

It's one of my favorite things in our home and now I can see what my husband looks like while in our BR!

Livy Love Designs Giveaway Winner!!!

The lucky winner of our Livy Love Designs giveaway is....

Connie from: about him & her

Connie said...

Few things that inspire me: colors, other people/blogs, great quotes.
So many things inspire me but those definitely do as far as my OWN designing goes... with parties, home decorating, or even taking pictures for people (:

March 14, 2011 2:10 AM

Email Diana to coordinate on the print you choose and shipping!  dianawinksmith@gmail.com

Congrats!!!!!

Wknd

1. Green Apple Jones (it literally tastes like you are biting in to an apple) and homemade Pizza for girls night.

2. My gorgey new navy blues that my mommy bought me on Friday.

3.  Erin, my new little sister.  She is one heck of a sous chef in the kitchen.

4.  Two brother in laws and their fortress of a fire.

5.  Jumbomallow.  Most fantastic for s'more making.  They are the size of a full grown kiwi.  I'd like to see someone play "chubby bunny" with those suckers.  You get an automatic win if you can fit 2 in your mouth.

6.  My super Jones Soda bottle-cap fortune.  Thanks Jones, I needed that.

7.  Lindsay, my 2nd new little sis.  I'm obsessed with her straight across bangs.

8.  Mr. Murphy and I trying not to burn up from our bon-bon fire.

9.  My real little sister, Bek.  I love her and her tender heart to pieces.

Weekends are so heavenly.  And this one was full of:

singing

making music with Mr. Murphy

new shirts with bows

making friends

making pizza

making fart noises

and no laundry...because that would be offensive to weekends. 

pee.ess.

{enter}

UGH!!!

This is how I feel right now...

I have just spent the past two hours/10 months planning a secret romantic getaway for next weekend for myself and the Mr. only to get on the phone with the airline company for them to say, "Oh, I'm sorry your vouchers are not available for weekend travel..."

Seriously?!?@#E?RQ?#$#^W$H*^$*&^)*&^##$^(_+_)

Brain explosion.

Goodbye dreams of beaches, sun, sand, foreign cities, and seclusion.

I want to kick Spirit Airlines in the you know what.

Somebody give me a helmet, I am going to bang my head against the wall...

P.S. you know what you could do to make me feel better?

Enter the Livy Love Designs giveaway!

Livy Love Designs Giveaway!!!

Hello lovelies!

We are so excited to be doing our first giveaway by one of our very own sponsors!

Livy Love Designs is giving away 1 FREE print of the winners choice!

Be excited, because these things are bee-u-tee-full!!!

Her prints are inspired by her daughter and her husband.  

Here are a few of my favorites:

I yanked these pictures from her blog (which is also pretty fun by the way)!  Here is an idea of what they look like in person.  The colors are so vivid and cheerful!

To enter:


1. You must be a public follower of the Tunes and Spoons Blog and comment telling us you are.
2. Visit the Livy Love Designs shop and comment telling us which print is your favorite.
3. For an extra entry comment telling us 3 things that inspire you!


Good luck!


We are also offering free shipping on any order with coupon code of "Freeshipping" entered at check out.


Giveaway ends: 3-16-11

DIY Budget Board

Is it some unspoken rule that you must be poor to be a newlywed?
Seriously.
Also, every time you feel like you might finally be saving some money the Universe must get news of it and then it tells your windshield wipers to run over each other while its raining thus impeding normal wiping capability and resulting in expensive repairs and bad driving visibility.
Thanks Universe for trying, but we are going to make it any way.
You know why?
Because we budget.


A few weeks ago I made this budget board for us to start getting a better handle on our finances.  Its empowering when you know where your money is going and how much of it is going there.


What you'll need:
string
nails to tie string around
tiny clothes pins
envelopes
a large picture frame
and some discipline and will power (this is the hardest of all of the supplies to find)

This idea came to me one Monday while I was driving to work and I was thinking about how we could budget better.  It works well because:

1. Spending cash is harder than swiping a credit card.  

-When you are holding your hard earned money in your hands you are less likely to be impulsive with it.

2.  What you see is what you get.  

-When an envelope runs out of money, its out and thats it.

-Sure you can pull from other places, but it is a bit of a sacrifice to have to take the money from somewhere else.

3.  Everything has its place.

-When you place cash in to each envelope there is no room for careless impulsive spending.

-When you go grocery shopping take only the "groceries" envelope and it will limit your spending.

(I like to slip an extra $20 in here every once in a while)

We can dream right?

By no stretch of the imagination do we have this all under control, but we are on the way.

Let's just hope no robbers read our blog.

So, if you are a robber, the envelopes are just a decoy and the money is really somewhere else....

Life before we were "we"

We weren't always a "we".

Of course I can't imagine it any other way now.

It's funny to me how you can be so connected to a person.

Being a wife, a half of a whole, is such a marvelous feeling.

I told John the other day, "You are everything I never dreamed of."

That might seem a little weird to say but I must admit I didn't know how good I was getting it when I married John.

I have thought 1,000 times that I never could have asked for all of the things that John are.

He has qualities that I would have never thought to even desire, but those things I didn't even know I needed turned out to be exactly what I needed.

We are so M-F-E-O.

to read our engagement story click (here)

thanks to her and her for the beautiful photos.

DIY Pillows

(sorry for the horrible grainy iphonephotos)

Of course you do!  

Because for the price of one table-runner at that magical place called Target, you can make 5 pillows!  FIVE! That comes out to $3.59 per pillow!!

I originally got this fantastic money saving idea from my cuz on (her blog.)

We have two kinds of fabric on the table-runner: the embroidered yellow and orange and the solid tan color.  This is nice because it will give you a variety.

Here are the directions for the embroidered fabric:

(when previewing this blog John stayed on this GIF for one minute solid making ironing noises...oh how i love that boy)

Easy right?

For the tan solid fabric I followed the same directions until number 5.  Once I got there I used an iron on transfer sheet and ironed on my design to the fabric. 

This part is where you can really get creative because you can make it pretty much anything you can think of!

I searched on the internet and found some pictures of some old letters that were sent to America from Hermosillo, Mexico (where my John served his mission for two years).

The date on one of the letters was particularly special.  It was sent on our wedding date, only 126 years earlier!!  (well actually on the 25th of May but I edited it slightly...)

Ta daaaaaaaa.