Oh, Flower.

My first confession (and some of you already know this) is that we have a cleaning lady. Yes, I work from home, have Fridays off, but hear me out.... Before she cleaned our house, I'd like to think our house was pretty dang clean all the time. Stefan and I are both neat freaks and like a clean house and I was a little confused as to why he was trying to convince me to hire her. We got her name from one of Stefan's co-workers and we figured we'd give it a shot--- once a month to do a deep clean and all the things I hate doing (toilets, dusting the blinds, cleaning the baseboards, etc.). We can easily take care of the rest. The night we came home from work after she had cleaned our house for the first time, I think our jaws dropped to the floor. Our house looked brand new. The carpets looked brand new, and we were afraid to mess up the lines on our suede couch. She is amazing! All this time, we thought we did a great job cleaning, and then she comes along and shows us up.

Now, her name is Flower. Well, Stefan's co-worker calls her Flora, but we write the check to Florencia. I like Flower and that's how she introduced herself so that's what we're going with.

The one thing about "Flower" that normally would drive me crazy, is how she puts things back in our house. I don't know how she manages to move our giant couch to vacuum under it-- there's no way I could do this on my own, I have no clue how she does it. Sometimes I wonder what she's thinking when she puts things back the way she does. I captured a few things for you to see what I'm talking about....

Looks normal, Right? Notice the drawers and where they pull out. How the heck am I supposed to get anything out of the drawers if they're pushed up against a jewelry cabinet?!

It's cool, we'll turn our heads to the right whenever we wanna see this picture.

Good thing Stefan never sees this blog.

He likes his shoes a certain way.... and it's obviously not the way she put them back this time.

I don't think the holes for the toothbrushes were meant to hold the toothpaste.

Towel art.

Hotel Thorn.

While she does a great job cleaning every single bottle, she doesn't always put them back in the "right place" or the exact angle where she found them.

To clarify, this post is in no way, shape, or form an intention to complain about our beloved Flower. I would much rather come home to things put back in weird places than to not have her clean our house because she really does an amazing job.

It just makes me laugh.... and really curious about what her house looks like :)

Working from home...

I couldn't be more thankful for the flexibility in my job that allows me to work from home on a regular basis. I live about 45 minutes away from the office, and the drive really has never bothered me. But once you get in the habit of NOT having to get up at 5am, and NOT driving 27 miles to work each way, and NOT having a crazy drycleaning bill, or NOT having to fill up my car every few days, and NOT having to pay over $400 a month in doggie daycare..... it's hard to switch back! I've gained my independence in this role and it's forced me to really figure things out on my own and take ownership in my time management and project management skills.


While I absolutely love seeing the people in my office, a lot of the times I have a ton of work that needs to get done and I'm actually a lot more productive at home. When I tell most people I work from home, they respond with, "Oh, I would never be able to do that. I'd be too tempted to watch TV or do other things around the house." The reality is, sometimes put a load of laundry in, or run to the post office, or call my dad in the middle of the day.... but as long as my work gets done by the deadline, that's all that really matters in the end. I end up being more productive at home because I don't have as many distractions. I have music playing but don't think I've ever had the TV on for more than background noise-- it's weird. My dogs can't carry on a conversation for 45 minutes, so they're not much of a distraction either.



My work in the office days:

• Alarm clock goes off at 4:30am, get out of bed around 5am
• Drop the dogs off at daycare by 6am
• Drop off Stefan at work around 6:45am
• Work by 7am
• Pick up Stefan from work around 5pm
• Pick up the dogs around 6pm
• Home by 6:30pm
• Dinner, then log back into my computer and do a little more work at home
• Length of my day: about 14 hours
• Amount of work that realistically gets done: 9-11 hours
• Time spent driving, running errands, socializing, etc: 3-5 HOURS!!!!!!! 

My work from home days:

• Alarm goes off at 6:30am, get out of bed by 6:55am
• Work starts around 7am
• Done around 6pm, sometimes earlier/sometimes later
• Stefan drives to work by himself and the dogs stay home with me.
• Length of my day: 11 hours
• Amount of work that gets done: 10-11 hours
• Time spent driving, running errands, socializing: um.... maybe 20 minutes if I have an errand to run.

Even though I still feel like an idiot learning my "new" job, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Having the flexibility and awesome "work environment" is so worth it!


...even when I have these two craving for attention :)

Adventures with Lasik

So I finally took the plunge.... After all the contemplating, (remember this post?) I finally got Lasik surgery!

I wore glasses for the last time Friday morning and arrived at Barnet, Dulaney, Perkins Eye Center at 7:30am. I agreed to do a video testimonial, so I felt like I had the paparazzi following me around the whole time I was there. In fact, there were about 5 people that kept looking over at me, trying to figure out who I was, and why on earth there was a guy following me around with a giant videocamera. It was pretty funny and I'm sure I looked fabulous with my surgical cap, no makeup, and glasses (for the last time).

After the Valium, I was feeling great.... and then about 20 minutes later, I was out the door, with my Terminator sunglasses and almost perfect vision. The procedure was absolutely flawless and much easier than expected (it took less than a minute to do each eye!) I went home and slept for a good 3 hours (I love it when sleeping/resting is in the doctors orders) and woke up to clear and perfect vision!!! I was supposed to "rest my eyes" the first night, but I was just too excited that I could see without contacts or glasses that I kept opening them. I even went outside and looked at the stars for a few minutes. Such an incredible feeling.

The worst part? Seeing this gross mark from the suction thing they put on my eyes!! I can't feel it so I guess it doesn't really matter, it just looks gross, and it'll go away eventually.

The next morning I had my post-op visit at 7:45am and I can't describe the feeling when I read the eye chart for the first time without glasses or contacts and could read the line that was just below (better than) the 20/20 line!!! I have BETTER than 20/20 vision.... what the heck?! I went from worse than 20/400 to better than 20/20..... A-MAZING!

As soon as we got home, I was so excited, I patted my chest for Bentley to jump up and give me a hug and then all of a sudden---- SMACK. Paw right in my eye. I RAN to the bathroom, started pouring the bottle of artificial tears in my eye, thinking I could get whatever I thought got in there out as quick as possible. No luck, my eye was burning and felt like something was scratching my eyeball everytime I blinked. I decided to "rest my eyes" again and laid down upstairs for about an hour and a half. When I got up and realized nothing had changed, I called the eye center and talked to the on-call nurse. She asked if my vision was blurry so I covered my left (good) eye, and sure enough, super blurry out of my right eye. Scared the crap out of me. She told me to head straight back and the doctor would check to make sure everything was okay.

I arrive and the doctor tells me to cover my left eye and read the eye chart. Just a few hours earlier I was reading the "better than 20/20 line"..... now, I couldn't even see the giant "E." He looked at my eye and said, "well it looks like the flap of your cornea is displaced, I'm gonna call Dr. Rivera and he'll be in to complete the surgery right away." SERIOUSLY!??!! I couldn't believe it. I sat in the waiting room for a little while longer until the surgeon, Dr. Rivera and his team of nurses came to save the day.

You can barely tell in this pic...

This procedure to fix the flap was worse than the actual Lasik procedure, one--- because there was no Valium involved, and two--- because I had no clue what to expect. It wasn't a routine procedure where the surgeon talks you through it and it only lasts a few seconds. I could feel every poke and prod in my eye and I was sweating bullets making sure I didn't move an inch. Needless to say, once it was done and over, while I was still a little blurry out of the right eye, at least it didn't feel like someone's fingernail was scraping at my eye everytime I blinked.

And now--- almost back to normal again. After tons of eyedrops, a good nights sleep last night, my fabulous sleeping goggles, and ice cream (ice cream always makes me feel better), my eye is doing MUCH better.... and Bentley has since apologized. (Although I accept full responsibility for my stupidity in letting him jump on me).

It was so much fun saying "adios" to all this junk!!!

Christmas 2010

This was our first year celebrating Christmas in Arizona! Last year we were in New York and every other year we've gone back to Washington. It was a little weird having a 75-degree Christmas, but I'm not complaining!


My parents flew in on Wednesday night and left early this morning. We had so much fun this last week and time always flies when they visit. We spent a lot of time relaxing, did a little shopping, played LOTS of Apples to Apples, danced and boxed on the Kinect (ask me for videos if you want a good laugh), and watched some home videos that my parents organized and converted to DVD's as a Christmas gift (I'm not sure if Stefan was more embarassed of me or bored, either way, we had lots of laughs watching some of those!). We had a really good dinner at the Keg, played with the pups a lot, went to see Little Fockers (hilarious!) and Stefan cooked a fabulous ham dinner on Christmas Eve and a turkey dinner on Christmas! We ate like crazy, met up with some friends for dinner one night and then went back to their house for wine and dessert! Yesterday, we went for a hike at Wind Cave at Usery Mountains and it was absolutely GORGEOUS! I think a lot of people dismiss the Arizona scenery as being beautiful, but it really is stunning. After the hike, we went shopping and I got my first sewing machine!! I've been wanting one, but haven't really taken the plunge because I have such little patience when it comes to figuring things out on my own so I was VERY thankful to have the expert (my mom) here to show me what to do! We even made a custom dog bed for the pups yesterday so they have a plush bed in the car!! Spoiled? Of course. (The dogs, I mean. But I guess I'm a little spoiled too).


As always, it was a great visit with my parents and went by way too fast. My parents left for Utah today to see my brother and his family, and we went back to work. I love having time off, but reality has to come back eventually.... Hopefully I'll steal some more pictures when my parents post theirs, but for now, a couple from the hike and the dog bed I made!

Brooklyn is on the naughty list...

It was a typical work from home day yesterday, I was on a conference call and the dogs were just laying down in the living room like they usually do.


I heard a little rustling and didn't think anything of it. I continued on my call and heard more rustling and one of the dogs walking around. I got up to see what was going on and I see Brooklyn prancing around with something in her mouth. She looked so dang cute that instead of telling her "no," I made her sit (while I was still on the call) so I could take a picture.

That "something" she had in her mouth was a box of chocolate covered cherries that Stefan had just put under the tree that morning. When I sent him the picture, he said he hid it as far behind the tree as he could without me being able to see it. Apparently Brooklyn could smell it and thought she would give me an early present! She must have known that the one thing I love the most on Christmas is a box of Queen Anne milk chocolate covered cherries!!!

I've since hid the cherries IN the tree so she *hopefully* won't get to them again....

Catching up!

My blog has become neglected!!!

With the holidays upon us and my new business, we've been very busy, but we're having fun, so I guess that's all that really matters!


Just a few things we've been up to:


Stefan's mom was here for Thanksgiving - it seems like we spent the entire weekend shopping! We went to the Chandler Mall, San Tan Mall, Scottsdale Fashion Square and a few other stores in between. After she left, I was thankful I was already pretty much done with my Christmas shopping because I don't know how much shopping I had left in me! We had a great Thanksgiving, thanks to Stefan's fabulous cooking!! 

Lunch at Modern Steak

Gigi and Brooklyn watching Stefan's football practice

We've been getting everything ready for Christmas and my parents arrival on Wednesday! I even decided to get a little crafty this year and made this giant Noel sign for our living room! It was super easy (right up my alley since I have very little patience when it comes to stuff like this).

My finished sign (and Bentley being bad on the couch).

I LOVE getting Christmas cards!! 

(I just need to figure out a better way to organize them.)

We had my work year-end event and it was SO much fun... a scavenger hunt through Old Town Scottsdale! We were in teams and were given clues as to each of our three destinations and had to spend all the money on our Visa giftcards that we were given without going over, and including exactly a 20% tip. After a couple margaritas, beer and a few glasses of Chimay, somehow our team won, coming in with a penny to spare! 

We went to the Desert Botanical Gardens with Amy and Jim for their Christmas Luminary display and it was absolutely gorgeous!!! It was a perfect night with great friends!

I had my Stella & Dot launch party and it was so fun!! Since the party I've expanded on my jewelry samples and can't WAIT for the parties coming up! I'm traveling to Seattle and Utah in February and am so excited about this new business!! 

The dogs were forced to stay upstairs during the party.

I'm still in the midst of getting our office set up with the new desk. We ended up ordering two more pieces to make it work perfectly! We didn't want to order the extension until we had the corner piece set up because we weren't sure it would fit. If our measurements are correct, we should have exactly 1 inch to spare. I'll post pictures when the office is complete, I can't wait!!


Stefan had an implant placed in his mouth and I couldn't help but take this picture right afterward when I told him to smile:

Good thing he never checks this blog or he might kill me for posting this!

Other than that, we're enjoying the gorgeous 75-degree December weather and we're excited for my parents to arrive on Wednesday night! We've got Stefan's team Christmas party at our house Wednesday afternoon so that'll keep us busy until my parents arrive and our vacations begin!!

Exciting news to share!!!

I feel like I need to start this post with "no, I'm not pregnant."

Different kind of exciting news going on here! I've been very busy the last few weeks, (not to mention taking a break from my blog after posting for 30 days straight) but I am so excited and happy to announce that I am starting up my own Stella & Dot business!!!! Stella and who? It should just be called Stella and GORGEOUS. It's a jewelry line--- I know, I know.... you probably have the same reaction as Stefan did, "you just want a bunch of jewelry, don't you Julie?"  

I've been actually thinking about different business ventures for the past couple years now... I've had about 8-10 things go through my head and while I'm sure I would've gone full force with whatever I started, this just happened to be the most perfect thing for me and I couldn't be more excited! My friend Jordan emailed me and said she just had a Stella & Dot party and I would love their stuff. At nearly the exact same time, my cousin who owns a boutique in Montana was having a Stella & Dot trunk show at her store! I looked into it further and voila, here we are!

I'm having my launch party this weekend and attended a Stella & Dot event with my local director on Monday night--- this stuff is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! Half of the line is less than $50 so it's affordable and SO versatile. I'm obsessed. But, I guess it's good to be excited about your product than to fake it, right?

If you want to invite your girlfriends and host a trunk show to earn free and half off pieces of jewelry, let me know! Or if you wanna sell it yourself, check out my site below. I'm planning trips to WA and UT in February... Any excuse to travel and I'm there!

Check it out!!

SHOP: www.stelladot.com/juliethorn
**Orders placed by 12/14 will arrive by Christmas!
LIKE IT on www.facebook.com/juliejewelry
Thanks for your support y'all!