new stuff!!

Soooooo excited that we are actually making enough money in our business venture to get some new things every once in a while.

First, something that I have been wanting for a while now- especially in since the hot summer hit us.

NEW BLINDS!!!

That's right, we have been living in the house for like 8-9 months with no blinds in our windows. I am so glad that we finally got around to buying them! The house is sooo much cooler. I think they really finish off the rooms now. It feels more like a settled in, lived in home now. I love love love it!

Next new thing, is actually new/used. My parents got new furniture, so they gave us their old couches. This worked out perfectly because we were actually talking about taking our sage green couch up to the shop.

We put the big couch in the living room, in place of the old couch...

....and the new one we put in the office. We had to do some rearranging, but I am excited not to have to sit on the floor next to the desk while Nathan is on the computer.

And finally, the most exciting new thing of all!!

My brand new CRICUT EXPRESSION!!!!

I have been waiting for this day for almost a year! I was crossing my fingers at Christmas time last year that I might get it as Christmas surprise-- but I didn't. I was so sad, especially when both my sister-in-laws got the smaller version under their trees. Then when I started working for the census I decided that once everything else was paid off I would buy one, but this whole business fiasco came along and threw that plan off track.

Then, one magical day, we got a refund check from our former health insurance company who went bankrupt and my wonderfully awesome and handsome husband suggested that we use the money to buy my Cricut!!! The check wasn't quite enough to pay for the whole thing, luckily though, we had enough money in our change jar to make up the difference!

As soon as I got home I took it out and plugged it in on the kitchen counter and messed around with it a little. Unfortunately, it hasn't moved from that spot since. Our office/craft room was a disaster, and the kitchen counter is the only place for it right now. We are in the process of finding a new, more permanent home for it.

I have only used it a couple times so far, but I see big plans on the horizon!

Update

Wow! I haven't posted since June?!! Life has been a little crazy I guess; let me give a quick update on what's been going on...

WORK!

That's been the bulk of it. We usually work around 80 hours a week Monday-Saturday. We are spending more time at the shop than we do at our house. Sundays are a little bit of a relief, but I teach the 5-year-old primary class, and Nathan teaches Elder's Quorum once a month- so it's not fully a day of rest for us. We just keep going and going and going like the Energizer Bunny!

We are very grateful for every break we get! Like the Lunt family camping trip a couple weeks ago. It was nice to get away from it all and chill with Nathan's side of the family for a few days. I was horrible and hardly took any pictures, but you can check it out on Amy's blog- she was a diligent picture taker, like always.

We have had a few other small breaks here and there- like date night! We FINALLY saw Toy Story 3. We took my dad out to dinner for his birthday and walked around the mall. I also got a few hours off the other night for a Relief Society activity with my sister and best friend.

Our dogs have been having a rough time adjusting to our new work schedule and having to be outside all the time. For a few days we left the doggy door open so they at least could come into the laundry room where it's not quite as hot- but they lost that privilege when Dave started chewing a hole in the wall inside. They had broken the dog door, so we moved the drier in front of it to keep them out. Boy were we surprised when we came home that night to find the dog door once again broken down, the drier moved, our house practically destroyed, and two puppies inside- very excited to see us. We obviously weren't as excited to see them. There was garbage EVERYWHERE, rootbeer and bbq sauce on the carpet in the bedroom, and they had ripped my favorite bra into a bunch of little pieces! I pretty much cried my eyes out- that was way too much to deal with after a 14 hour work day.

So other than that, and working non stop- things are going pretty well and we don't have much else to report. We are gearing up for Halloween at work and enjoying the rain that occasionally stops by in the evenings, and just taking things a day at a time. Hopefully we will do something fun soon and remember to take some pictures!

a friendly reminder from your neighborhood esthetician

WEAR SUNSCREEN!!
Sunburns freakin' suck!

I told Nathan he looked to happy about his sunburn in this picture and he needed to look more miserable...

... this is what I got. Silly boy.

Ouchies!

We BOTH got really, really burned after playing in the pool for an hour or so with NO sunblock. We have been miserable together ever since. Nathan got really sick and I can barely lift my arms. I cry every time I try to do my hair. I think we definitely learned our lesson.

special thank you!

As you know, Nathan and I have been super busy making pottery, so much so that we fell a little bit behind on our cleaning...

Lucky for us, we have AWESOME friends and family that came and helped us out. Naturally, we fed them pizza and ice cream for their trouble. It was a long drive for most of them and they all worked really hard. We appreciate it so much, it was a big help.

Thank you Mom and Dad Sanders, Mom Lunt, Aunt Lara, Aunt Amy, Robert, Jared, Kassi, and Sandra! You guys rock!

dirty job...

Making pottery can be a very dirty, dusty job...

Sometimes I feel like I have turned into a giant pottery dust monster. I leave the shop almost everyday with dust in my hair and eyebrows- making me look like an old lady- and my hands, oh my gosh, so dried up and icky.

Luckily, we are able to find some time to go some place clean! Like dinner a movie! Yay for date night!



In true Nathan fashion, the first picture we took together he was making a goofy face. He claims it was just a picture to make sure he was in the shot, but I decided to post it because it turned out kinda funny.

Awwwww yeeeeeah! We clean up nice!

our famous niece and nephew

First of all, my sister-in-law, Amy has already blogged about this- because she is a much better blogger than I am! haha So if you read her blog you have already read about this.

A week or so ago (I must admit I don't know what day- they all sort of blend together these days) As You Wish was offering a free summer class in their Mesa store, because the news was coming in to film a little promo. Nathan thought it would be fun to invite his nephews to spend the night and come to class, since this is what they would be painting:


Carson got a little nervous about spending the night away from Mom and being in front of the news cameras, so his awesome big sister Madison came in his place and painted to car for him. She's such a sweetie!

Here they are- Garrett and Madison- the latest and greatest local tv celebrities- practicing their smiles for the camera.

Getting ready to get started with their pottery in front of them- like a blank canvas ready to be turned into a police car masterpiece!


I tried to get a decent picture of the news guy without disrupting the broadcast, but he kept moving around a lot! I swear he was facing the camera when I was started taking this picture...

And here is Madison and Garrett again! Paintin' away! Garrett decided to make his police car all red... it must be an undercover cop!


Here's a shot of part of the class with one of As You Wish's most awesome associates, Jaycee. There were a lot of kids that showed up for their 15 minutes of fame.

They lined all the kids up to show off their "works in progress" to film one of those teasers they put on to get you to keep watching. To see that video, check out Amy's blog. I was able to find the rest of the tv spot online though!




Out of all the pictures I took, this is the best one I got of the weather dude. Here, he is checking out some of the really awesome summer class samples.

Madison- with her, well, with Carson's police car. She did such an awesome job!

and Garrett, showing off art work.

It was a pretty neat experience. Hopefully Madison and Garrett fun and will look back and remember that time they got to be on tv!

If you're interested to see what other classes As You Wish has to offer check out the calendar on their website! They aren't all just for kids either, they have fun adult classes too.

introducing distinctly Lunt!!

So, for those of you haven't heard yet- Nathan and Tarin Lunt are officially self-employed! Yup, that's right- Nathan has left As You Wish after 5 long years and I leave my census job Thursday to do what? Make pottery!

This is something that Nathan has always enjoyed doing. When this opportunity presented itself, we just couldn't pass it up. It is something that we had discussed doing in the future- but neither of us expected that it would happen so soon! We were thinkin maybe after Nathan had finished up school and we had a kid or two, maybe we would start our own pottery business- never did we imagine that we would have this chance after being married only a little over a year!

In case you are wondering how this came about, the former owner of the company approached Nathan to see if he wanted to take it over. It was a business that she had run with husband for several years, and he had recently passed away; She just didn't want to do it anymore without him. So Nathan and I sat down and ran the number, thought and prayed about it a TON and finally decided that we would take the plunge! We took a few weeks to learn the ropes and officially took the business over on June 1st. It is keeping us very busy so far!

Here are so pictures of our shop:

This is the view of the shop from the back door (where we come in- the store front is a mess right now- we're trying to get in straightened up!) The shelves on the walls are full of ceramic molds, and all the tables you see are the molds that we have on production line right now.

This is a view from the back of the warehouse, it gives a better perspective of the pouring tables. This is the first step in the process. We set up all the molds that we need (or at least as many as we can fit) and then we use a pump to pour clay into the molds. After the caly has set up a bit, we go back and drain the extra clay out of the mold- this is what make the pottery hollow, instead of just a solid mass of clay.

Once, the pottery is drained, we let it sit in the molds for a while and harden/dry. The we unmold the pieces and set them on the shelf to completely dry up.


These are some piece that have been unmolded. They are already dry in these pictures, just waiting to be cleaned.
After the piece are dry, we clean them- which means that we take off the seams left by the mold, and we smooth out and bumps or dips. We basically make it look all pretty and smooth before we put it in the kiln and fire it.

These are some turtles after they have been cleaned, just waiting to go into the nice toasty kiln.

And these are some cupcake boxes- also cleaned and waiting to be fired.

After they are fired, they are unloaded from kiln and placed in our stock room until they get packed up and shipped out in a order.

Part of our animal shelf in the stock room.

A few bud vases in the stock room.

And some tile boxes.

Another cool thing that we do, is custom carved pieces! I was very excited to learn this part.

This is a custom carved snowman that I did.

And this is a custom carved Dallas Cowboys football! Not too bad- but I am hoping that my carving skills get a little better with time. We already have had a handful of custom carved orders, so I am getting a lot of practice.

We have a really big order that we are trying to fill right now, and since I still have to work until Thursday, we had to bring some work home.

Here is a bookshelf full of pottery- sitting in my living room- waiting to be cleaned. I have been trying to do as much as I can before work.

This is my little cleaning table that I have set up a home. Not gonna lie- I am really looking forward to my census job being over so that this mess can just stay at the shop!

Our summer is going to be very busy, but we are hoping to find time to get the front office all cleaned up and presentable, then we might have a little open house thing, so our friends and family can come see the shop in person. Until then, I am sure there will pictures I can post on here.

So, there it folks! That's one of the main reasons I haven't posted anything in so long. Nathan and I have both been so busy taking this business over- it has sucked up most of our spare time. We are looking forward to some of the perks of being business owners though- like making our own schedules! We are actually going to be able to see each other now! No more working opposite shifts! Actually, we are pretty much going to be together almost every single moment of every day. Hopefully we don't get too sick of each other! :p

they can spot a sucker from a mile away

I had gone home from the pottery shop one too many times with rough, dry hands. While Nathan and I were out buying a new printer for the business, I convinced him to stop by Bath and Body Works with me. I went for some kind of scrub that would get the clay off my hands at the end of the night and some lotion....


Nathan: We are just here to get what we need, and then we are leaving.

Tarin: I have to look around a little, I haven't been to this store in forever, I don't know exactly what they have...

*Tarin spots a variety of scrubs on the tester counter (exactly what we need!), and asks the sales lady where they are located in the store.

Sales Lady #1: They are right over here, let me show you. Oh, by the way, these ARE part of the signature collection, which are buy 3 get 3 free right now.

*Tarin looks up at Nathan with a big smile!

Nathan: That's how they sucked me in at Christmas time!! (For those of you who don't know or remember, Nathan bought me a ton of bubble bath for Christmas)

Tarin: Well...I am just going to look and see what else they have...


I got 3 of these; they are, after all, one of the things we came for...

Two different lotions...

And one body wash! (Which I have fallen in love with, and might have to go back to buy the whole line!)

Nathan: Ok, let's go now.

Tarin: Oh! We need soap for that bathroom too!

So I picked up one foaming anti-bacterial that I thought smelled nice and headed to the check out counter.

Sales Lady #2 (ringing up the soap): Oh, were you not going to take advantage of the 4 for $15?

Tarin: What?

Sales Lady #2: All the soaps are 4 for $15. They are usually $5 a piece. I think the sale makes them about $3.50

*Tarin thinks to herself, That sounds reasonable... And walks over and picks out 3 more pumps of soap.

A quick shopping trip for scrub and lotion turned into 10 items and $55. Boy! What a sucker am I!?! ...At least I will a nice smelling sucker. HA!

421 days and counting!

If you visited our blog at all in the month of March, you probably already know that Nathan and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary. All month, I meant to sit down and write a little something, but work and LIFE kept me pretty busy. So here I am, almost 2 months later, and I am finally getting around to it.

It's crazy to think we've been husband and wife for a year already! It just flew by, but at the same time, I feel like we've been married for ever. It's weird how that works out. When I look back on all the things that went on in just one year, it's CRAZY!

-We got married.
-We went to Mexico on our honeymoon
-We moved into our fabulous apartment
-We almost completely decorated our apartment from craigslist and IKEA
-Nathan moved from the Desert Ridge store to Mesa
-I officially changed my name!
-I got a job
-I lost a job
-We got Buster
-I finished school and got my esthetics license
-We went to a few D-Backs and Suns games
-We have taken a couple trips up to Utah
-We have gone to 3 family reunions
-Of course, we both celebrated a birthday
-We bought a house!
-We got Dave
-We renovated/remodeled the house
-We moved into and decorated the house!
-We've had like 3 garage sales and sold a bunch of junk
-We had our first holiday season as a married couple
-We took "family" pictures and sent out our first Christmas card
-We did quite a few service projects
-We visited the temple several times
-and I got another job...

Obviously, that's not everything, but it's a pretty good list of accomplishments for only one year! I think the thing that I have enjoyed the most, and is probably the more important of all the accomplishments- is getting to know Nathan more and more. When you really think about it, he and I didn't know each other all that long before we tied the knot; only six months. We have both learned so much about each other since then, and we continue to learn every day. I would be a big fat liar to say we haven't had any fights, or that we don't bicker from time to time- but ya know what? I love our fights! I don't think that an occasional fight is bad- each one has been a learning experience and has actually really improved our communication with one another. Honestly, married life just keeps getting better and better. I really do fall in love with him all over again, almost every day. He's the love of my life and I can't wait for the rest of lives together.

This second year is off to a good start! We're close to having all our credit card debt paid off and we're building up a savings account. We've got some fun vacations planned this year that I simply cannot wait for- road trips are my favorite! We're getting our little home in order; we're starting landscaping now that the construction is all done. And...we're pretty much just lovin' each other and loving life and taking it as it comes!

Oh, and for those of you who were betting on us having a baby or at least being pregnant within the first year, we're are sorry that you lost money. We are planning to start a family at some point, but we told you all that it was going to be AT LEAST a year. When you ask? Well that's top secret. You will just have to wait and see!

The best is yet to come for this little Lunt family.

the tale of the naughty blogger...

Alright, I've been a pretty bad girl when it comes to blogging- so I must apologize. I blame my crazy work schedule! For those of you who don't know- I got a job helping out with the 2010 census. I work from 3:30pm to midnight- and up until very recently was working a ton of over time- extra hours during the day AND Saturdays. I pretty much haven't had time to do ANYTHING. It's not just my blogging that has been neglected...

Good news is, my job is winding down. It was only a temp assignment; I knew it was going to come to end at some point. I am not sure how much longer it's going to last, but I do know that I am not allowed to work any more over time at this point- SO I have a little time in my schedule for blogging. Yay!

So here comes a post or two that I have been meaning to do for what seems like AGES! Enjoy.
=D