The Allens

I'm still alive!

2012-01-13T16:47:00.001-08:00

I dropped the ball on this one. I'm sorry! I have been putting a lot of time and effort into my craft blog and even that has been overwhelming. I'll try to update this one once a month, deal?

Love you!

PWC Busy Season Gala

2011-03-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

I'm alive! I know, I'm such a slacker. You want to know what's sad? Part of the reason I'm deterred from updating this blog is because I don't feel like signing out of my other account, signing into this one, writing a post, and switching back. Boy am I lazy. But nonetheless, here I am. I have a few more posts coming soon, Valentine's Day and the Aquarium.

Last night David and I went to his "Busy Season Gala." It was literally a giant, Mardis Gras themed party for the whole company to celebrate the end of the busy season. A good reason to have a party, I must say. It's been nice to have David home at a decent hour. :) It was quite a fancy party! It was at a beautiful country club, it was over 100 years old and had such beautiful vintage charm. There was a live band, bowling, dinner bar, dessert bar, open bar, raffles, games, and dancing. It honestly was a lot like prom, everyone was in fancy dresses! Except this time, more than half the guests were drunk, at prom it was only a select few. :P

It was the first time I'd really been to a party like this before, I guess that shows how new I am to the "adult world." David and I had a lot of fun, I was able to meet some of his coworkers!

I think the most fun was the duck pink bowling, it was old fashioned bowling that had tiny little balls, tiny little pins, and you could have as many turns as you wanted! It was difficult to adjust to throwing a ball with no finger holes, but after a little bit I got the hang of it pretty well!

We mostly kept to ourselves and left without a single drink (I honestly got a glare from a bartender when I asked for a non alcoholic drink!), but all in all we had fun. I think the employees really deserved a fabulous party after working so hard these past few months!

PWC

2011-01-19T09:29:00.000-08:00

So I'm starting to realize that trying to run two separate blogs is kind of difficult. But nonetheless, here I am trying. That counts...right?

Last week David officially started his internship at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

It's the largest accounting firm in the world, so it's kind of a big deal that he's working there!

On his first day of work. Isn't he so handsome?? :) So far it's been pretty hard for him, he works LONG hours (I'm talking like 8am to 11pm, no joke) and the work is difficult, but for the most part he enjoys it. We're both happy that he's finally working after four months of being at home! I miss him a lot during the day since I've been so used to having him around. I just hope the poor guy doesn't get burned out. Good thing he's getting paid over time!

On a related note, a month or two before the internship started David got a call from PWC requesting his shirt size because they were going to send him a box of "goodies." Sure enough, a few weeks later we received this box of goodies.

I thought it was so funny because it actually had goodies! David stole the cookies before I could take the picture though. Typical. :)

Christmas and New Years!

2011-01-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

Last year my new years resolution was to blog more. And I am happy to report that, looking over the year overall, I did a pretty good job! I got thrown off with the start of my craft blog and a complete lack of material to write about, but I love the accomplishment. :)

We kind of a crazy Christmas, we essentially had three! One with David and I, one with my family, and one with his. It was so wonderful to be with so much family on such a special day. Too bad I was sick out of my freaking mind.

We started early, 6:30am and we don't have kids to blame for it!

The hubs got me a fantastic bead caddy! I pretty much immediately transferred everything to it.

After our short Christmas together we headed over to my parents house. Jellybean loved her presents. :)

Brandon is playing an Ocarina from David! He basically mastered it within a few seconds.

It even snowed a little bit!! I honestly think it's the first time I've ever had a semi white Christmas. It's usually too early to snow in Maryland.

Brandon was so proud of the way he wrapped David's summer sausage present.

Have you ever had one of these? They are delightful! I want to try making my own after I saw how easily it seemed to be assembled.

Brandon's traditional wearing of all of the clothes he got.

Christmas dinner. (I wasn't included, I was so sick I didn't want to risk getting everyone else sick.)

After dinner we headed back to David's house to have Christmas there! We got David's dad some pomelos, gigantic green grapefruits that he used to eat on his mission.

As awful as this picture is, I think it does a good job showing how sick I really was. I even have a breathe right strip on because I was practically dying. I used every bit of strength to smile when I got my presents (I was super excited for everything, I got some amazing craft gear from my family and David's mom even got me a Silhouette!) It was a great Christmas, but I'm glad the hype of the holidays is over.

New Years was very quiet, the first one I've ever had. The past two New Years I've been in Disneyland! But with so many people being so sick we just didn't have it in us to do anything big.

We taught Cleo how to be Keyboard Cat! (Video reference here.)

We enjoyed sparkling cider and poppers.

The company of family and friends.

Jack even joined in the fun. :)

A little too much if you ask me!

Have you ever played Blockus? You should, it's awesome.

And we ended the evening with a traditional New Years kiss. :)

Anniversary!

2010-12-22T10:26:00.000-08:00

David and I celebrated two years of marriage on Sunday. I can't believe it's been that long, didn't we just get married yesterday? (Reading back on old posts it sure feels like it was yesterday!) It was a great weekend, since it was on Sunday we did most of the celebrating on Saturday but Sunday was great too. :)

My present to David.

His present to me.

He's the kind of guy that really makes you feel great when he's opening your present! (I know you can feel the sarcasm.)

Being the crafty lady that I am, I made his gift! The theme was cotton this year so I monogrammed W.B.H. on a t shirt and gym shorts (he lives in them, that's where I got the idea.) I thought W.B.H. would be somewhat obvious, but apparently not for David. (I won't tell you the ones he came up with.) It stands for World's Best Hubby!

(Ok, I'm not much better, sue me.)

David named him "Mr. Bear." (Creative, yes?) I love him, and I plan on sleeping with him whenever David is out of town.

We also made gingerbread houses!

Despite being from a box we still managed to screw them up pretty badly...

To finish off our day we had a typical dinner and movie date. We ate the Greystone grill.

I don't know why you think you'll ever escape pictures of food we eat, so just stop thinking about it! David got this cool wedge salad. It's a quarter of a head of iceberg lettuce with all the fixings on top! I thought it was so cool.

He has a lot of fun eating it too. I totally want to do this for a fancy dinner in the future.

Whenever we go out to eat it feels like David always orders ribs....

And I always order a seafood dish. I guess when you like something you like something right?

And now here we are, two years older and a heckavu lot wiser!

On Sunday morning David made me Eggs Benedict! (My all time favorite breakfast, he ever gave me the special plate set!)

We enjoyed eating breakfast together in the basement, spending quality time together and just enjoying each other's company.

Did you notice what he wore? :)

And what celebration would be complete without sparkling cider??

And can you believe it?? He managed to find a bouquet with BOTH of my favorite flowers. I thought lilies and peach roses together would look funny but I love it! Here's to two more years together, love you hubs!

Thanksgiving at MuggaPappap's

2010-12-05T17:29:00.000-08:00

I haven't forgotten about this blog, I just get too lazy to write in it! Take Thanksgiving for example, super fun, took lots of pictures, but I know hours of blogging are ahead of me to post it all and then I just get lazy and don't do. Sorry. :( But I won't but it off any longer! (Though the post might be lacking in words, there are 52 pictures to make up for it. So that's....52,000 words! Win!) David and I headed up to my grandparent's house in PA for the holiday weekend! My cousin Courtney came down from NY, so it ended up being a big crowd.

Me and Al in our matching Turbie Twists that also matched out outfits!

Poor Jum Jum really wanting some turkey. :(

The girls and I all made jewelry, since that's my new favorite thing.

Courtney and I prepped the table, since we weren't allowed to help with cooking!

Paper plates aren't classy you say? HA! Mugga and Pappap don't have a dishwasher is what I say back to you!

I think we did a FINE job thankyouverymuch.

Doesn't Jellybean look sooo funny in this picture?? Hahahaaa, I love her so much!

Hard at work to make the holidays memorable.

Lazy butts doing nothing! This is basically what any down time looked like over the weekend, everyone at a laptop. Talk about family bonding!

Mugga's famous stuffing!

And also famous cole slaw,

Yeah, you're jealous. I know.

These are the faces of happy campers waiting to get food! Well, Allie is more like a "FOOD FOOD FOOD" face.

It was a little cramped, but that just makes it easier to spread the love around!

With Pappap's rotator cuff surgery, he had to do everything left handed. Of course he wouldn't let us help him at all.

And Jellybean finally got some turkey. :)

I was trying to take a picture of how sweet is was of my dad to bring my mom happy face stuffing, and Allie had to go and PHOTOBOMB it! Although, I will admit, it's a pretty good photobomb.

Mugga will KILL me for posting this, but I thought this was the most adorable picture ever!! Isn't it?? We were all tired after dinner, there was a lot of this going on.

The next day was Black Friday, so we went shopping for a while. Brandon and I went through a really cool antique shop. He liked the cool feather hat, amongst other things. I was sad I didn't get a picture of everything we saw!

This just made us laugh. An outlet store for alcohol? How does that work??

After shopping and seeing HP7.1 we took a traditional trip to CiCis. This is the traditional taking pictures of the remaining crusts! (With more traditional photobombing!)

Non pizza eating Courtney only had olives behind, what a shame!

And Allie the crust eater didn't have and crusts to show off.

(See what I mean about photobombing??)

We played so many games while we were there. Wii games, board games, word games, you name it, we played it! However, once David smashed the antique crystal lamp while playing Wii Dance we stopped playing. (Look at the lamp on the right. See how it doesn't have the dangly things like the one on the left? Yeah, David broke them.)

Drinking lemonade through "Veggie straws," which surprisingly wasn't revolting!

Courtney had a knack for winning all the games!

And David and Dad don't have a knack for making mad faces.

I caught Jellybean doing the "Ultimate Relaxation Pose!!" I was so excited!

Oh! And it snowed while we were there! Though it's hard to see, I promise it's there. It inspired us to make...

Snowflakes! My idea, of course. Everyone joined in the fun, we even had to improv with the scissors!

Yeah, they didn't work very well.

Apparently Dad didn't know how to make snowflakes! I felt bad, he's missed out on so much in life!!

Allie was good at making doilies.

(Make sure you check out both snowflakes in this picture!)

(See the creepy totem pole looking face in the middle??)

It was such a great trip, I was so sad to leave. On the way home I tried to get a picture of "Dad's favorite rocks" but I didn't do a very good job. Next time I'll get them!!

Becky's Babes Birthday Beach Bash!!!

2010-11-08T11:05:00.000-08:00

(Say that 10 times fast!) This is my 100th post!!! How exciting is that? :) I guess my New Year's resolution to update the blog more actually pulled through.

This weekend I was able to go to Ocean City, MD with my old friend Becky and a whole bunch of other girls from high school for Becky's birthday! It was a lot of fun, I really needed a weekend to get away from life and to get out and have fun. :) Since I got married I haven't really gone out with girls!

With the exception of Becky, I hadn't seen any of these girls since high school! (I know I'm still a youngin and only graduated in '05, but five years is still a long time to go without seeing someone!)

On Saturday a few of us broke off and we enjoyed a stroll along the boardwalk, it was weird to walk along it when it was so cold!!

And so deserted!! My childhood memories of Ocean City include sweltering heat and what felt like over a million people on the boardwalk. There was hardly anyone! I felt like I was walking along it for the first time, seeing shops and stores I'd never been able to see before!

This was my favorite one! It had an endless amount of paintings and it was even playing Christmas music! (I am not a supporter of Christmas before Thanksgiving, but it was kind of fun to be at the beach with Christmas music in the background.)

I saw this painting just kind sitting along the wall and HAD to have it. A framed, original oil painting for less than $15!! You can't even find deals that good on Etsy! I love it, I can't wait to find the perfect place to hang it.

I'm hopscotching on some colorful boards. I'd never seen those before, but it was a refreshing break from the old, grayed boards.

Anyone a fan of Harry Potter? I know you're jealous that we saw Sirius Black on the beach! It's hard to tell from the pictures but this dog was huge!!

Unfortunately, the sun doesn't set on east coast beaches, it rises. But it was still beautiful to see the "background" of the sunset on the beach! I loved seeing the carnival silhouetted against the beach and the bright colors reflecting off the waves.

Once the sun set, we were off for a night of dancing! The restaurant/bar we went to was what we referred to as a "cougar bar" (lot of drunk older women hitting on younger guys) and the live band was so loud I literally could not hear myself speaking, but overall it was fun. I haven't gone dancing in years!

I spent Sunday morning enjoying the beautiful view from the condo we were staying at. Yeah, this picture was taken on the balcony. :)

HA!! You thought you could escape a post without seeing a picture of my food? You were sadly mistaken. :) Eggs Benedict is my all time favorite breakfast and the cute little place we went to had Eggs Benedict with crab meat instead of ham! Um, can you say delectable? It wasn't even a wimpy amount of fake crab, it was big ol' chunks of real crab meat. Oh I love the beach. :) I was able to order seafood for every single meal while I was there!

After brunch it was some more boardwalk time, since not everyone got to go on it on Saturday. I used some of my time to actually walk along the beach and enjoy the salty air and freezing water. There is something so calming about listening to the waves and picking up shells.

I missed David a lot while I was gone, but I found ways to include him in the trip. :)

There was one shop on the boardwalk called "Salty Yarns" and it was such an adorable little craft shop! I didn't buy anything (those little skeins of yarn were at least $10 each which is a little too much for a beginning knitter that messes up a lot.) I was so happy Mary pointed out the shop! I thought I wasn't going to have anything to do with crafting over the weekend. :)

I think my favorite part of the second trip was renting old school bikes and riding down the boardwalk. These bikes were pink, had baskets and bells and even back pedal brakes! It was so much fun, I felt like a little kid again. :)

"Excuse me ma'am, have you been drinking?" "No officer, I'm just walking on this line." "You're not walking very straight." "The line isn't straight!" Ok, that really didn't happen, I just thought it was funny that the lines weren't painted straight. :)

Since we were celebrating Becky's 23rd birthday, it was only appropriate to celebrate on 23rd street!

Our final stop was a pizza and pancake (odd combination yes?) joint called "Dough Roller." The waitress encouraged us to draw on the back of our placemats and we happily followed her instructions. :)

Sadly, all vacations must come to an end. But I'm happy I went. :)

I even got to see my family on the way home too. :) What a wonderful weekend I had! I hope yours went well too.

Halloween, Naruto!

2010-10-31T13:54:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun Halloween! We celebrated at the ward's trunk or treat last night because Halloween is on a Sunday this year (boo, I love Halloween.) But really it's ok, I finished the costumes (with a little help from siblings and friends) and we looked AWESOME!! Kids and teens and even adults were like, "Hey look! Naruto! I read your manga!"

Remember how I told you to remember Naruto? In case you didn't...Naruto is a Japanese anime, one of the most popular! (Well, really the manga is popular). I won't even get into the details because the post is already going to bore you to pieces, so I'll include reference pictures to help you see the awesomeness. :) I know, I know, I'm completely lame, but I hope you'll put up my lameness for a little while. :)

There was so much involved in these costumes (I made four of them!) There were so many accessories, so many clothing alterations, it seriously took up all my free time. But the reactions from the kids and other Naruto lovers at the mad house of a party we went to were well worth the effort. :)

David was Kakashi (top), Elisa was Sasuke (left), Carolyn was Sakura (middle) and I was Naruto (right). We had so much fun mimicking poses and pretending to be ninjas!

Sakura loves Sasuke, by the way. He doesn't love anything or anyone, especially not her. Maybe someday he'll come around.

Elisa loves Sasuke and had a lot of fun playing him!

Carolyn was the only one of us girls luck enough to be a girl in costume. (Not that Elisa and I minded at all. But I'm the only one that didn't have to spray paint my hair another color!)

(Uuuuuuuuuuum, just imagine cool photoshopped goodness.) I loved David as Kakashi the best. I think he made a perfect Kakashi and his costume took the least amount of effort! (Plus, I have a cartoon crush on Kakashi, and I kind of love David, so it just works out!)

(Ran out of hand on this one...)

(Man, I keep mixing up my rights and lefts! And please excuse my painfully orange pants.)

And we had fun doing random poses. :)

(Pajama girl was an invited party crasher.)

It was a really odd time to be taking pictures, it was too light for flash and too dark without it. Ugh. Sorry about the inconsistency.

So many pictures! I wish we could have taken more, but life happens and costumes get uncomfortable. :) Happy Halloween!

Football games, carving pumpkins, and the most gorgeous state on earth

2010-10-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting this blog a bit. Between running my craft blog and tutoring 8 different kids a few times a week I've been really busy! But in a good way. :)

I've discovered that I actually like going to high school football games! This one we're at one supporting Brandon in the marching band (like my Appa hat???)

Typical Allie. :)

He is a tremendous bass clarinet player!

That's him with the star around him. Isn't he so handsome?? He's first chair!!

We went to another one where we supported my darling little sister in cheerleading? (Isn't she so cute?)

She does cheerleading, drama, gymnastics and has a social life and still manages to get straight As!!

And Brandon drinks juice boxes. Manly huh? :)

Oh...did I mention WE WON??? We never win, NEVER!! I think we're the worst team in the whole district. But we won!!!!

This is my version of "Swan Lake" with magnets. We got these little bendy magnets at the art museum a while back and they are sooo fun to play with!

On Monday for FHE we carved pumpkins! It was so much fun, and I tried something new! Well...kind of.

Elisa's was a secret.

Mine wasn't! (can you tell from my template?)

Carolyn's was very ambitious but it turned out well!

David's was secret too, what's with pumpkin secrecy??

Isn't it soooo cute?? It's a singing kitty. :) I always seem to do a cat of some sort on my jack o lantern....I just have a think for cats!

I did the "poking" method this year. It make the carving WAY easier but it was a little more time consuming. But I really loved the result, this was the first time I've ever had a lot of negative space on my pumpkin.

Can you guess whose is whose?? David did Jack Skelington (he knows I love Nightmare Before Christmas and he carved it for me, isn't he sweet?) I did the kitty, Carolyn did "Defying Gravity" and Elisa did Naruto!!

Wicked cook aren't they? I love carving pumpkins!

David also did a Jack fried tortilla (with cinnamon sugar...mmmm!!!)

I love being back in Maryland. It is SUCH a beautiful state, especially in the fall. The colors are mind blowing! I've had a lot of fun taking pictures of the stunning scenes! I'm by no means a photographer...but I had fun anyway. :) This first set I took right after a thunderstorm.

That last one just makes me happy because it's the same kind of tree that's in front of my house (the house I grew up in, that is.) You know the craziest part? All of these pictures were taken in the flower gardens around the house.

This set was taken on a trail ride with Elisa. Most were taken while on the horse so they're not the best quality, but hopefully they're good enough to make you jealous of the beauty of my world.

This little mushroom was the star of the show!! It was by far the coolest mushroom I've ever seen!

I loved that it was red at the top and then slowly turned yellow. And those little bumps!!

Oh and the texture. I loved it.

Oh the leaves. I love the leaves.

And I love Jack. He's so cute. :)

Oh I love Maryland.

Tomorrow (hopefully) I'll post pictures of our Halloween costumes!!

Colorfest

2010-10-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I was able to visit my parents not only for my little brother's 17th birthday, but also to go to the Colorfest Craft Fair! It. Was. AWESOME!

I can't believe he's 17 now. Makes me feel so incredibly old! My mom made this DELICIOUS apple cake with warm caramel on top. It was so delicious, I can't even tell you!

In case you couldn't see these cuties on the cake, here are a bunch of close ups. My mom used these adorable candle holders on a lot of mine and my other brother's birthday cakes, but they kind of got lost and weren't used as much for the two younger kiddos. But my mom busted these out and we were all giddy over them. Aren't they so cute???

A video game where you can be a lawyer. He loves it.

However, I do believe he liked our present better. :) (It's a snowball gun, by the way.) Just look at that happy face! Win one for the sister!

Early the next morning, my mom, David and I loaded up the van and headed to Thurmont, Maryland for Colorfest!!! It was the best craft fair I've ever been to, hundreds and hundreds and HUNDREDS of vendors with so many crafts we didn't even get to see them all. And we were there from 8:30am to 5pm!! My feet were in agony by the end of the day, but it was so much fun. :) I don't think David had fun...he was basically our pack mule for the day, but my mom and I sure did!

We were booking it and I mean booking it the entire day, so I wasn't able to get pictures of everything. :( But here are some goodies to drool over!

Just as a warning, there are lots of kitty crafts. I love kitties!!

Do you see the size of the stem?? It's like as thick as my arm! (ok, not quite...)

I was so in love with this quilt. SO IN LOVE. I really, really, really wanted it, but I just didn't have the money. I need a fancy machine to quilt like that and add pretty embroidery.

Teeny tiny little vases! Aren't they adorable!!

I really want to try this. A dried pepper wreath! And it smelled just as good as it looks.

This painting makes me want to watercolor paint again.

These were all made from recycled materials! Not only are they super cool, what a great way to make money off of old junk. :)

Those are crab shells! Painted as kitties! Two of my favorite things in one, yes please!

Dressed up pumpkins!! I love it.

He was such a good pack mule. :)

I love the kitties on this, but look at that ridiculously happy pumpkin behind it all.

This was David's favorite part. :) Shows how much fun he had! Too bad, at least me and my mom had fun. :)

Free Salad

2010-10-07T19:22:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Red Robin so generously gives away free salads?

...

Ok. Not really. But let me explain!

This was my delicious lunch from Red Robin. Notice the garnish. They called that GARNISH!! That is an entire, ginormous lettuce leaf! It's bigger than the entire bowl of soup! After laughing and gawking at it a little bit, I decided to turn it into a salad!

I tore up that leaf.

Drizzled some dressing (it kinda spilled...)

Added a little bit of the filling of my wrap and had me a delicious side salad! That's so sweet of Red Robin, to give away free salads. :)

David didn't get a free salad, but he enjoyed his classic American meal. :)

Waterford Virginia Festival

2010-10-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday, I went down to Waterford, VA to a seriously awesome craft fair/homes tour with my MIL. We were there for hours walking around looking at old, historic houses and moping about how untalented we are compared to ridiculously talented people. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll let the pictures do the talking. :)

I didn't know that people still actually spun yarn, but apparently they do!

This is an angora rabbit, isn't is huge? If you've ever worn an angora sweater, this is likely where it came from. We got to touch some of the fur and it was SOO soft!

This one woman created beautiful pieces with real pressed flowers. And all this time I thought pressed flowers were corny!

There were some amazing quilts, this one was my favorite. I almost entered to win it, but I didn't want to blow the little money I had on entering.

Some of my very favorite exhibits were of wood crafts. Carvings, whittling, all of it, I loved it! Here are some more examples.

Oh, and don't even get me started on some of the amazing things that people can do with PAPER.

I can't even believe half this stuff was made out of paper. Can you get over how gorgeous those lamp shades are??

Did you know that I used to teach pottery classes? I LOVED it, I took classes, I taught classes, there is just something about working with the earth that is so exhilarating. I wish I would have continued so I could create some of these...

There were glass crafts...

"Natural" crafts...

Don't you just love the kitty cat pendant?? Not for $300...but I still loved it. :)

Cinnamon scented beeswax! That was my souvenir. :)

There were a lot of "olden" crafts that were so interesting to watch.

(Yeah, you read that right. $2,000 for a basket. And you have to be on the waiting list for a year to get one. But I think an elephant could stand on one and nothing would happen.)

I LOVED the old clothing. Authentic replicates of 18th century clothing? I almost lost my mind and wrote a check for that gold one, but I wanted to still be married to David so I resisted. :)

And of course, no post would be complete without a picture of the things I ate! :)

Mmmm. :)

Oh. I also saw Jennie. It was great. :)

I'm going to another fair this weekend with my mom with twice as many vendors so be prepared. :)

Henry the Hobo

2010-09-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

WARNING: If you are freaked out by spiders, DO NOT READ THIS POST!!! Instead, focus on this...

Cute picture of a chipmunk from icanhascheezburger.com and click "back."

...so I'm now under the assumption that if you're still here, you don't mind seeing close of pictures of creepy spiders? Ok...last chance!

Meet Henry. He is our Hobo Spider (at least we think he is...he might not be!) He terrorized us last night. David found him under the air hockey table and we pretty much all freaked out (I had to leave the room.) He tried to squash it but little Henry wouldn't die, so David caught him instead. After a little bit I was brave enough to come and take pictures. This one is kind of cute...but honestly they're still giving me creeps!

Poor Henry. Stuck in our jar!

David caught a moth and stuck it in the jar with Henry and he caught it and started eating it! It was super gross.

He was a pretty big spider...I know straight pins aren't all that big but when I saw him on the floor I screamed and ran away.

Did you know that spiders can turn into comets?? Wooshing through the sky in a flaming ball! (Ok, I just thought the shadows were cool.)

"Please let me out!! Don't let David leave the lid on all night and let me suffocate!"

Don't name something unless you want to get attached to it!

I couldn't let David kill him, so I made him let the poor thing go. It was quite the late night adventure!

Art Museums

2010-09-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

Oops! I didn't even realize I hadn't posted about this! I've been getting really caught up with my craft blog that I guess I've been neglecting this one. Or maybe because I don't really post crafts here anymore there isn't anything to post about. :P

Anyway! This last weekend I spent with my parents and we watched chick flicks, went to art museums, and had a Big Bang Theory marathon. The first and last items don't really produce pictures, so I'll primarily be talking about the art museums!

A huge perk of living near D.C. is that there are an endless (or so it seems) amount of museums that you can spend your afternoon in. This particular trip was geared toward the Littlest Brother for a project he was working on for school. We spent most of the afternoon perusing around the museums and taking pictures.

I tried to improve my photography skills, but alas, my mother is much more gifted in the photography department than I am.

I took A LOT of pictures of my favorite works or art, but I'll try not to bore you and give you the feeling that you are in a museum too. So I'll only share a few of them. This was "Dishes with Oyster, Fruit, and Wine" by Osias Beert the Elder. The detail is absolutely amazing, I spent a lot of time just staring at the brush strokes.

This is the only Da Vinci in the United States, it's called "Ginevra de 'Benci." Once you get over the eeriness of it, it's actually quite a beautiful painting. I guess with pale skin and an unsmiling face it's not too hard to look a little eerie.This was David's favorite painting.

I was in awe with this beautiful magnolia painting, "Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth" by Martin Johnson Heade. (I think more titles of paintings should be this straightforward!) The velvet backdrop looks real enough to touch and I could almost smell the flowers.

It was a beautiful day so we spent some time outside enjoying D.C...

And creating our own art. :)

I had a little more difficulty really appreciated the pieces in the modern art museum. Call me a jerk, but I really don't see how pencil and chalk scribbles on a bare white wall is art. To really appreciate I like to see that real work went into it and/or the artist is really trying to convey a powerful message. To me, a perfectly white canvas just doesn't do that. However, there were some pretty cool pieces that I did enjoy. This one was "Jasper" by Chuck Close. Get a little closer...

Now that is cool. I wish I had that kind of talent and eye for color.

I never really thought of light as art, but this one helped me see otherwise. It was mesmerizing to watch the patterns and lights change. This one is "Round Rainbow" by Olafur Eliasson.

This one I just thought was funny. That's pollen. Yes, all of that yellow stuff is pollen. On the floor. And it's art! Who knew? :) "Pollen from Hazelnut" but Wolfgang Laib.

This was my dad's favorite from the sculpture garden. This is "Needle Tower" by Kenneth Snelson. I wanted to stand under it and look u just like he did when he ws a kid, but we didn't think they would let us get that close to the art. Bummer. :(

I took so many more pictures, but like I said, I won't bore you with them. Hopefully I'll have some more exciting things happen in life soon to share. But until then, happy Friday! :D

I painted today!

2010-09-15T11:21:00.000-07:00

It's true!! :D The seafood festival really go to me! It is the most gorgeous day today and I knew I had to be outside doing SOMETHING. I looked through my inspiration notebook to see what I've sketched in there and tried to figured out which one I could actually do outside (I'll give you a hint, sewing and working with tiny beads didn't make the cut.) Then a thought struck me. Painting. I haven't painted in months and months, mostly because I'm too scared, I don't wanna screw up. After a little arguing with myself I sucked it up, grabbed my paints, easel, and a new canvas and set up camp outside. After two hours of dabbling, this is the final product.

It's going to go in my kitchen. :) Why do you ask? Ha, if you ask you are obviously not from Maryland. Because Maryland blue crabs are the most delicious things to eat!

"But...your crab isn't blue." That's because it's already cooked and ready for me to eat!

Cooked blue crabs. (source)

Live blue crab! (source)

It's been so long since I've painted that it was hard to remember everything I've learned.

But for not painting in forever, I think it turned out really well. I can't wait for it to dry fully so I can frame it and stick it in the kitchen!

Happy hump day!

Maryland Seafood Festival

2010-09-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been 9 years...9 years ago I was a wimpy freshman in high school sitting in 3rd period U.S. history when I heard the news. It was a crazy day, with ironically gorgeous weather. I was freaking out all day, but ended the day with a calming trip to the temple. I hope you took a minute to remember today too.

Thanks to Groupon, David and I (and his sister and a friend) got to go to the Maryland Seafood Festival! So. Much. Fun! There were crafts, children's books, live music, the Chesapeake Bay, and of course, seafood!! I'm a huge seafood lover, remember my giant lobster? Yeah, love me some seafood! It was like my happy place on a beach.

We saw so many cool things, this is what happens to a bottle when you put it in a kiln!

Isn't this sand castle amazing?

Since it was Maryland, obviously there were tons of crab-themed things! Oh if only I was a millionaire, I could have a crab themed room and be happy forever.

My birthday's in April! I want these!!

Even just one of these would be good. :) There were so many amazing crab things, I wish I could have taken pictures of everything!

Can you tell that I love crabs? I thought I was going to end the summer without getting to eat some delicious blue crabs but I didn't. :) Thank you Boy Scouts, for having a steamed crab booth!

This was Elisa's first crab, and she did such a good job! I was very impressed with her crab eating skills.

You don't even know how happy it made me to be able to eat a few crabs. I mean, I was giddy, giggling like a little girl! I love, love, love love, LOVE eating crabs.

David prefers to play with them....

I get right in! (I don't know what David was thinking, maybe smashing crab claws is funny?)

He wasn't brave enough to dig into a whole crab (*cough* *cough* WIMP!!!) But he was brave enough to smash away at a claw. Teehee.

Oh! I also played a game where I got to pick up oyster shells with a rake and fill a basket. It was so fun, and I even won a prize!

We finished off the festival by going to the Bay!

We saw a lot of baygulls! (Like seagulls...but we were at the bay? Get it?? Baygulls...bagels...ok not funny.)

Played with jellyfish and spent way too long looking for rocks a seashells. :) I have a plan for my rocks and shells and I can't wait to try it out!

Rave!

2010-09-09T15:17:00.000-07:00

You know what I like? Avatar. Not the one with the blue people, the Nickelodeon cartoon. American anime! Yeah, it's a great little show. David and I have been watching it together on Netflix and we've been plowing right through it, we're already done with book two!

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I feel like such a dork. My favorite character (I think) is Appa, the giant flying bison. He is so cute. I want to make Appa related crafts, and other Avatar related crafts! I feel like I'm in 7th grade again, when I was utterly obsessed with Sailor Moon.

Labor Day weekend!

2010-09-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

David and I met at the BWI exactly 3 years ago today. :)

Hope everyone had a great weekend and a great day off, I know I did! I was with my family most of the day and we got to see a lot of things.

We saw my grandma.

We saw my little brother march in a parade (he's the handsome blonde one.)

We saw the fattest dog in the world.

And we saw pirates! All leading up to a great family BBQ here at David's parents house (no pics of that though, sorry.)

And in honor of the 3 year anniversary of out meeting, we got delicious fish tacos.

Mmmmmm. :) What did you do this weekend?

A true success

2010-09-05T16:41:00.000-07:00

Have out checked out my new blog yet? Go on over and say hi!

I went down to my parents' house yesterday to spend one final day at the pool with my sister (and I'm happy to report that we both got a little color. :) Before I left my mom asked me to give my dad a haircut. I laughed, until I realized she was serious. Gulp! I've only ever cut my husband's hair before (and even then, the first time it took me an hour of "prepping" myself to cut it!). I was pretty nervous, but agreed to do it because I didn't want my mom to hurt her back doing it.

Before...

During (apparently he didn't have faith in me either!)

After!

Epic win! My mom freaked out a little because it was so short, but it's how short he wanted it, so it works! This is a true success!

Pssssst! It's also his birthday today, happy birthday dad!

And the winner is....

2010-09-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

....ok. It was pretty much a tie. The entire time I've had this poll up and been asking for help making the decision, each outcome took turns being in the lead! In the end, keeping it all here won by only one vote, and I thought one vote was just not enough to make this decision. So I decided to compromise. I would like to introduce you to....

Kitty Cats and Airplanes! (Click the button and it will take you directly to my new blog. :) With such a close tie I decided to try and do both things. This new blog will be primarily for crafts, with a little bit of family life sprinkled in. This blog will be mostly family with a little bit of crafts. So that means...

If you are more interested in the crafts I am making, head on over to Kitty Cats and Airplanes and start following!
If you are more interested in my family life, stick around, they'll be plenty more. :)

Lost Sock Basket

2010-09-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone that has voted in my poll and given me feedback about whether or not to switch over my blog. The results have been SO close the entire time, it's making it very hard to make a decision! (PS, I would still love to hear any input you have.) However, I believe I've devised a compromise that will suit both needs, but we'll wait until later for that.

Since the vote is still undecided, I have a craft. :P This one was made especially for Crystal's Craft Spot's weekly challenge. This week, it's laundry room! I didn't have to think about this one at all, I knew precisely what I was going to do for this challenge. Since we live with David's parents, I don't exactly have my own laundry room. So, I wanted to make something that would be laundry related, but can still be used elsewhere in the house.

And thus we have, the lost sock basket. The idea is actually my MIL's, the first day I did laundry here I noticed a little wire basket that was stuffed full of the family's lonely socks and I thought, "Wow, that's brilliant, I need one of those!" So I've had the project in my head for a few weeks, I just needed the motivation to actually do it (thanks Crystal!). Oh, and did you notice my gorgeous dresser?

I love my dresser. I mean loooooove it! And the best part? I got it for FREE. The second best part? It was this gorgeous when I got it. Swoon!!

I was originally going to use this ugly basket to put the socks in, which is why I needed a cute label to fix it! But luckly, Joann came to the rescue with a $1.97 clearance basket. Ahh, how I love a good deal.

I'm pretty happy with the results. All I did was cut out a rectangle of cream felt and a smaller rectangle of burlap and sewed them together. Then I sewed the words "lost socks" onto it and I was done! (It's hard to see, but the "O" in "socks" is actually shaped like a sock. Teehee!)

And it's already in use. I love practical crafts!!

I've mentioned before that David has two cats. Anyone out there that has a cat knows that kittys looove to get into the things you're working on.

I come back to the table and Aeris is gnawing on my basket...

...and playing with my disappearing ink pen. I couldn't help it...

I had to play with her. :)

Dilemma, to switch or not to switch?

2010-08-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

Ok blogging world, I have a dilemma here. I set up this blog before we got married as a way to keep a journal for myself, friends, and family and document my new life with my husband. I wasn't very good at it to begin with, but thanks to New Year's Resolutions I've done a pretty good job updating this blog all year!

So here's the dilemma.

I've really gotten into crafting and sewing and my blog is getting filled with all of my crafting endeavors and my hobbies and my personal life are getting all jumbled together. Family and friends are most likely more interested in things like my move across the country and my trip to the zoo. I link up my crafts to a lot of parties and these gracious visitors are more likely interested in seeing the crafts I make. So for both cases I feel like someone isn't interested, either my friends and family are getting sick of my crafts, or my fellow crafters are getting sick of seeing all of my family photos.

So what should I do? Should I keep my blog the way it is now, or should I move my craft stuff to another blog and bring this blog back to only being a family blog? I really don't know what to do, so I'm enlisting your help in aiding my decision. Any feedback would be lovely! (I'm also putting a poll in my sidebar in case you're in a hurry and don't have time to leave a comment.)

Summer Vacation

2010-08-28T20:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went with my family on a "summer vacation." My dad didn't get to go on a real vacation so we decided to squeeze as much fun as we possibly could in one day! And let me tell you, it was one of the funnest I've ever had!

We started out hiking at Cunningham Falls, which just happens to be one of the longest cascading waterfalls! (Meaning, it doesn't drop straight down, it just kinda runs down rocks for a very long time.)

It was really pretty. I'm not too much of an outdoorsy person but I really like being outside and enjoying scenery all of God's creations.

We discovered that my sister Allie is incapable of "waterfalling" aka pouring water into your mouth from a water bottle without touching your lips. It was really amusing to watch her try though. :)

But it's ok, I still love her.

I just like this picture, this is my dad demonstrating how to do yoga. :)

He then found a millipede and stuck it on his face. What a brave man! I got creeped out just watching it move.

This is Brandon's action shot. I like how he's holding a giant walking stick while he's jumping, what if he fell and landed on it???

Brandon, Allie, David, and me.

I always find it's a lot easier to go up than down (unless it's a rock wall and you can just glide back down.) Apparently Allie feels the same way. :)

I saw a few cool things on the trail, and I used those opportunities to try and improve my photography. I know practice makes perfect, and even though these are far from perfect, I'm still trying!

(This little an was carrying that much bigger green bug! It was fascinating to watch.)

After the hike we went to an awesome candy store in Thurmont, MD. I remember going there a few times as a child and trust me, I was just as excited then as I was this time. :)

My favorite part of summer is the fresh produce. Man oh man do I love juicy peaches, crisp corn, and red ripe tomatoes. MMMMMMMMMMMM.

Now remember, this was an entire summer vacation in one day, so we did a ton of things! As we headed back home we went laser tagging at Shadowland. Typically we go on New Years Day, but c'mon, laser tagging is so much fun and should definitely be included in a jam-packed, fun-filled day! Unfortunately, laser tagging isn't exactly an activity that you can take pictures of. So I'll move on to....

Cici's! Where the have macaroni and cheese pizza!!!! Did you know that macaroni and cheese is my favorite food? Did you know that pizza is also pretty high up on my favorites list? Did you know that the two of them together is AMAZING? Well, it is.

We ate a lot of pizza, but Brandon beat us all with 20 slices. Oh to be a 16 year old boy with a high metabolism.

After all that fun we needed something relaxing, so we headed to the pool. Too bad it was anything but relaxing. For me, it was honestly the most fun I can ever remember at a pool. My siblings are just a lot of fun. But poor David...

He dove a little too enthusiastically and scraped open practically off of his fingers on the bottom of the pool. I'm really glad he didn't smash open his head, but still. I won't show you a picture of the actual scraps, it's pretty cringe-worthy.

I got to see my Jellybean!! :) I love my kitty, she's pretty much my favorite. I had such a great day with my family, I should go on summer vacations more often!! (Yeah...dream on huh?)

Legal Pad Cozy

2010-08-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

Ever had one of those random ideas pop into your head really late at night that you just can't wait to start? That's how this project was born.

Since we were busy Monday night, David and I had Family Home Evening last night instead. (Interested in learning more about Family Home Evening? Click here.) We decided it would be good to start gratitude journals to help us really start to look for the blessings in our lives. Now this was at about 11:30 last night, and I got so excited to start my journal that I didn't want to wait to get started. My MIL has a bunch of little yellow legal pads in a cabinet so I went a grabbed one to keep in my purse. If you're anything like me, you just can't leave a little yellow legal pad all by itself, even if it is a little late. However, late at night might not be the best time to start a project, because I failed miserably. Twice. What you are about to see is my third attempt.

Tadah!! I'm actually quite pleased with how it turned out, even if it did take a few hours of hair pulling and scrap bucket filling. :) It was pretty simple, I basically made a small "pillowcase" and put two rectangles of recycled cereal box inside to make it sturdy enough to write on. Added embellishments, a button/elastic closure and voila! Simple and elegant, just how I like it.

I love this little button I found, it's so pretty!

I also added a strip of one inch elastic inside so that the legal pad could stay in snugly and allow me to switch it out whenever needed.

(Yes, I added lace to the legal pad....)

Now my new gratitude journal is ready to be tossed into my purse so I can always be ready to record life's little blessings. :) Like 73 degree weather, ahhh. So refreshing. If I was still in school I would probably use for taking notes in class, jotting down reminders, and writing notes to the hubs. :)

Also, if anyone is interested in a tutorial for this, let me know! The hubs still needs one. ;)

Maryland Zoo

2010-08-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

Another adventure for you! Getting sick of these yet? I hope not, I have a few more to squeeze in in the next several days! Gotta make summer last as long as it can. School starts on Monday! (Not for me though...)

I'd never been to this zoo before. I've been to the National Zoo in DC a dozen times, but never this one in Baltimore (frankly, I didn't even know it existed until last week!). It was kind of "lame" compared to other zoos I've been to (San Diego, Wild Animal Park, National Zoo) but I love the zoo, so I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I'll try to only post my favorite pictures, but I do have a few favorites.

(Ever seen that Spogebob episode where Squidward gives Spongebob a pie that's a bomb and Squidward and Mr. Krabs think Spongebob is going to die so Squidward spends the whole day doing Spongebob's fun list? Know how when Spongebob gives Squidward the list of fun things he says "The things that are extra fun, I've written in red." Then Squidward says "Everything's in red." And then Spongebob says "Yeah I know!!" And wiggles his eyebrows? Yeah, that's what I feel like with this post. All my pictures are "red.")

Moving on!! We learned (and relearned) many things during our trip to the zoo.

We learned that David is about as tall as a thoroughbred horse.

We learned that Elisa loves donkeys.

We learned that you should make funny faces in pictures, because if you don't, you'll feel like the idiot, not the funny face makers.

We learned what "nesting" really is. (And that peanut butter ice cream bars are rather delicious.)

We relearned that Amie LOVES polar bears (they are her second favorite animal!)

We learned that despite starting to run and work out again, Amie has not lost any weight.

We learned that polar bears at the zoo eat popscicles!

We learned that said popscicles are apple-pear-fish-carrot flavored and that zoo workers get excited when the stripes come out all pretty.

We learned that polar bears have strange bluish-purplish tongues! (Cute huh???)

We learned that monkeys like to cuddle.

We relearned that Amie really likes frogs (especially yellow ones!)

We relearned that giraffes are really, really tall. (David's sister is 5'3'' just like me.)

We learned that baby elephants are adorable.

We learned that there are bouncers even in the animal worlds (I laughed at this one for a while.)

We learned that cheetahs are really, really fast even when they're walking! (This was the only un-blurry picture I got.)

And finally, we learned that fences really screw up would-be cool action shots.

More adventures on the horizon! I'm even working on a cool craft that I should be done with soon!

Creativity

2010-08-23T08:25:00.000-07:00

I don't consider myself a creative person. Most of my "good ideas" are inspired by something that I've seen or heard of, and then I personalize it to make it my own. I know half of creativity is inspiration, but I don't ever feel like I have a good idea that I just thought up myself. This doesn't bother me most of the time though (only when I want to open an Etsy shop and realize that I can't because I haven't thought of anything awesome enough to sell), I've still been able to create things that I genuinely liked.

However, lately it feels like there are ideas swimming in my head all the time. I think it's because I barely done any sewing or anything crafty at all since we moved. There are still a lot of things I need to do (finish unpacking the last few boxes and finding a job are the biggies), so I always feel guilty when I want to bust out the sewing machine and/or glue gun, because there are more important things to do. Grrr. I'm thinking about starting an inspiration journal so I can jot everything down when it comes to me and get back to it later. But we'll see, I'm really self conscience about my ideas, I usually shoot them down before anyone ever hears of them. Stay tuned.

Trip to Philly!

2010-08-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

Am I boring you with posts about my adventures? I guess I've just been really lucky to be able to go to so many fun places lately! Today was Philadelphia, I'd been there before but the last time I remember being there was in fifth grade, so it was like I'd been there for the first time! We listened to stories (from some very animated storytellers), visited a ton of historical sites, and....actually, I'll just move onto the pictures. :)

The first post office in the United States!

Me, Ben Franklin, David's sister Carolyn and her friend Grace.

Where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed.

For lunch we ate at City Tavern, a cute little era restaurant where we drank from pewter goblets and the waitresses dressed up in colonial clothes! Since I am a major seafood lover I was very much drawn to the "lobster bake." She described it and I wanted it! What I heard was "a pound a half of lobster (I wanted to share with everyone since some people hadn't had it before), clams, mussels, and corn on the cob." What she actually said? "A pound and a half lobster." Holy crap!! I honestly freaked a little when she brought out the plate, I know how to eat a whole crab, but not a whole lobster! I had a lot of fun with it though, and I discovered I was with a bunch of wimps! ;) I guess it takes a kind of person to annihilate seafood.

What was left, it took a little bit of balancing to fit it all! I know, I know, we take a lot of pictures of our food.

We saw so many amazing "vintagey" things, these were some of my favorites.

WANT!!!!!!!!!!

Walking down the oldest street in the country, Elfreth's Alley.

I loved this kitty fountain!! It was right by Besty Ross's house.

David by the Liberty Bell.

To finalize the trip I wanted to get authentic Philly Cheesesteaks from Philly!

Uh-maze-ing!!! (Sorry about more pictures of food...)

Lace Necklace Shirt

2010-08-14T20:29:00.000-07:00

I have a confession...I don't have a style. I really don't. One day I'm all black nail polish and dark eyeliner and the next I'm wearing all pink, lace, and pearls. Sometimes I mix the two, which was the case today.

source

Ever seen these "necklace" shirts? I think they are really trendy (I have one with a shoe necklace printed on it :D). The style is a bit "punky" and I wanted it to be a little more girly. Enter:

Lace! Then add...

And a $1 t-shirt from the thrift store. This will equal...

One fabulous new shirt! It's only basted right now (sewing machine is still packed) so it's not yet wearable, but I really like it. I left the lace free so it could actually feel like a necklace and added the lace roses to make it even more girly. I LOVE the lace roses.

Aren't they so gorgeous?? I wanted to sew them all over the shirt but I thought that might be a bit much. :) Since the lace and the shirt were both from the thrift store I managed to make the shirt for just a little over a dollar, what a bargain!

I'm really liking the way it turned out. I can't wait until I machine sew it in place so I can actually wear it!

Linking to the following parties. Click on the buttons to find other great ideas!

Craftastic Monday at Sew Can Do

Baltimore Aquarium

2010-08-13T19:08:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a trip to the Aquarium! We went for David's Dad's birthday and it was a blast! I'd been a few times before but it's been years, it was so fun to go again. There were so many cool things, and I took way too many pictures (typical me). Here are some of my favorites:

One of my favorite exhibits was the "jellies" one. I don't want to be near any jellyfish, but they are fascinating to watch!

These were the "upside down" jellies. How weird are they?? (See the teeny tiny baby one in the top right?)

David and two of his sisters waiting for the dolphin show to start.

They were so stinkin' adorable!!! And they did so many cool tricks!

Like swim with a little ball on their nose.

And jump really high and hit a little ball! It was an awesome show.

I thought this little fish hiding in the oyster was soo cute! Hello!

His sisters' favorite fish was this little puffer. It was a fast little monster! I tried several times to get a picture and finally got this one. I think it looks pretty cool with the reflection.

We saw Nemo...

...and Dory!

And Squirt! And even....

A POKEMON!!!! Doesn't it look like Omanyte?

Doesn't it????

I'm pretty sure these seahorses were posing for this one!

I actually like how the child in front of me put his little hand on the glass, because now you can really see how gigantic the fish is!

I never thought a croc would be cute...but this one proved me wrong!

I love frogs. Even when they could kill me with one touch. Good thing there was glass in the way, it would have been hard to resist that shiny blue skin.

I think that fish on the right stuck it's fin in a socket don't you?

And to end the trip, a gigantic shark's mouth. Those teeth were as big as my hand!

It was a great trip! Do you have any fun plans for the weekend?

Primarily Picture Post

2010-08-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

I'm thinking about starting a new thing on my blog, a PPP (primarily picture post). There are a lot of times when I haven't had much to say, but I've had a few pictures in my camera that could suffice for my lack of words. Example: Currently David and I are still unpacking, and I don't really want to bore you with how our unpacking is going. However...

I do have some cute pictures of one of David's cats! And there you have it. A PPP.

Nothing exciting now, but soon I'll have some great pictures form a photoshoot David and I had with an old friend. :) Stay tuned!

We made it!!

2010-08-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

*Warning* The last two weeks have been such a blur, so this post is going to have a ridiculous amount of pictures to explain everything. Also, I'm currently enjoying a Clay Aiken concert on Weta, so I'm a little swoon-y. :) (Ok, A LOT swoon-y.)

Well, after four and a half days of driving and just as long unpacking, we've made it to our new home in Maryland! More or less, this is the route we took (Huzzah for Paint! :) stopping on all the red dots.

The trip was excruciatingly long (I hate long car rides, we were in one fifth of all of the states!) and I am sooo happy it's over. It's not something I would like to repeat any time in the near future. I really like being home though. Well, not home, I'm not living in the house I grew up in, but it's home enough. :) But before I get ahead of myself, I do believe I owe the blogging world a little memoir about my cross country move!

First things first, David graduated! I'm so happy for him. :) Now we both have college degrees and are ready to occupy those minimum wage retail jobs!! (Sometimes I hate the real world.)

Before the ceremony, we went to Frontier Pies (which I used to work at, the summer we got engaged) for David's graduation linner. (It was too late for lunch but too early for dinner...). They have amazing pies!! We ordered a cherry cheesecake pie and we had to get the entire pie it was so good.

The commencement ceremony. See David? I put a star around him for you.

Got to sneak down and take a picture. :) Isn't he so handsome??

Right before he was walking across the stage during convocation, I ran up to get a picture and literally got pushed over as I was taking the shot! I understand that there are other people that need pictures of their graduates, but really? Pushing people over and making them almost miss theirs? Rude. I'm grateful I got this one though.

In front of his second home. (I didn't know there was such a thing as a "bachelors degree widow," but there is.) It was a great ceremony and I am so proud of him for putting the effort into getting a college degree. :)

One of my favorite things is Farmer's Markets, and my favorite on is in Idaho Falls!

Have you ever seen Nacho Libre? It's so stupid, but I love it! They have the same corn! ("Get that corn outta my face!" :D) It's so delicious. (And the reason my arm is all bent and funny is because there's a ladybug on my wrist.)

Last trip the the mall (where I get Cry Babies, my favorite sour candy.)

Last trip to the diner. (Remember from this post?)

Last trip to Rexburg's best restaurant, Craigos.

I loooove the pizzaria style booths, and the delicious food doesn't hurt either. :)

Last Taco Tuesday. (Don't know what Taco Tuesday is? Read this post.) We were so busy packing we couldn't even be in...

...our booth! Funny story: We were in the drive through and I saw inside that no one was in our booth, so I ran out of the car, went inside, snapped a picture of our booth (for postery's sake of course) and ran back to the car before I food came out. Win. We sat in this booth almost every single Taco Tuesday. So many memories.

We also did a few fun things in the process of packing. Without any breaks, it was sure thing that we would go insane.

Our vacuum was a serious piece of crap, and when it finally died for real while we were cleaning, we decided to throw it off our third story balcony.

The results were seriously lacking. :(

While we were cleaning out the freezer, we noticed we still had three sandwich bags full of huckleberries! We didn't want them to go to waste (they're super expensive to buy and no where to be found back east) so what do we do? Make jam of course. Have I ever made jam? No. Did I even know how to make jam? No. Did we have the supplies for making jam? No. Were we leaving town in 16 hours? Yes. It was a little ambitious, I'm surprised I even took on the task. I read up the little insert in the canner we got and went to work! It was crazy, fast-paced, really hot, but a lot of fun.

And they actually turned out ok! What are the odds of that? I honestly can't believe my luck.

Tuesday morning rolled around and it was time to say goodbye to Rexburg for good.

We originally ordered a 16 foot truck and dolly for the car, but because so many people were moving that week, we got upgraded to a 24 foot truck and a platform for the car for free! Can you say huge? Um, yeah. And the lucky car got a free ride across the country!

See all that trash? Most of it is ours, no joking!

This is the only scenery picture I'll bore you with, I took a lot. This is in Wyoming, going down the mountains. It was so gorgeous, I almost couldn't contain myself.

We passed a few funny things, like "Hoback Market..."

...and "Pine Cone Restaurant." Lol! There were so many more that I missed pictures of, and some seriously funny city names.

In Omaha, Nebraska, we went to a burger joint called Brewburgers, which was on the show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. (Just like the diner mentioned previously.)

In all honestly, pretty much the best burgers I've ever had in my life. The one David got (which had a dinner plate sized blob of melted, crispy cheese on it) was featured on the show.

I got the bison burger, made from real bison! It was so good I can't even describe. Better than a party in your mouth, like an epic New Year's eve party in your mouth. And those fries? Italian fries, complete with crumbled cheese, bacon, and chives, with delicious alfredo sauce for dipping. Absolutely amazing, whoever thought up of that is my new best friend. If you're ever in Omaha, seriously hit up this place.

Ok, I lied about the scenery. do you know how much corn is corn in the US? There were miles and miles and MILES of corn that we passed. Oh my goodness gracious.

Our final stay before we got to MD was my grandparent's house in Pennsylvania. This is the Monongahela River (can you pronounce that? :)

Me and my Mugga and Pappap in front of their "lush garden" (Nacho Libre quote...now that I've mentioned it twice in one post you need to see it if you haven't.) I was so happy to be able to stay with them, since I went away for college, I haven't visited their house in a long time. Better than any bed and breakfast you'd find!

And there you have it, one ridiculously long post for one ridiculously long journey. I hope you enjoyed it. :) I might even post pictures of our new abode if we ever finish unpacking. :)

Moving Day

2010-07-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

This is it! In a few hours David and I will be leaving Rexburg for good. At this point, I'm very sad. This has been my home for five years and I'm really going to miss it. But I'm excited for the new chapter in our lives.

We have a very long road trip ahead of us, we've broken up the 33ish hour drive into four days with about 8 hours per day so we wouldn't be overwhelmed with driving a gigantic truck for so long. First stop: Laramie Wyoming. Never been to Wyoming, so this should be fun! I'll probably post again tonight with the tons of pictures I've taken document all of our "lasts." Stay tuned!

Bittersweet

2010-07-20T22:15:00.000-07:00

I'm not exactly sure what the mood of this post is. I'll start with the negative things because I like to end on a positive note. :)

David and I are moving back to Maryland a week from today. I thought I was excited, I've been dying to leave this place for a while now, but my feelings are starting to change.

Things that suck about Rexburg, Idaho:

Long, COLD winters with snow from late September until June. There is no such thing as spring. It goes from winter to summer.
Too small town, population like 16,000 (but if you take out the BYU-Idaho, that number goes down to less than 3,000)
Too college-y (ok, that has only been a downside since I graduated :P)
Stupid cops that bust you for ridiculous things (like "failing to yield to a pedestrian" when the pedestrian was clearly letting you go. Grrrrr) Included in this is IDIOT pedestrians that walk out in front of you when there is an inch of ice on the ground and still expect you to stop on a dime. Hello pedestrian, you will lose in a fight with a vehicle.
Too much sky, I like trees and buildings in the way of my horizons
It's a desert. This means dry heat (I HATE dry heat, I'd rather melt than fry) and little rain. I love rain and thunderstorms.

I haven't really come to terms with these things. I grew up on the East Coast! I like humidity, spring, green, cops that chase bad guys, and big cities. There are more things that suck, but this is my main list. But, in the process of packing up my apartment and the move really beginning to hit me, I've realize I'm really going to miss this place! I've lived here and called this place "home" for the better part of the last five years, there are things that I've come to love!

Things that I like about Rexburg:

Everything is cheaper here. Everything! Rent, groceries, fabric, everything. This includes the cheap theater, I loooove the cheap theater.
Beautiful temple just a few blocks away. I can go whenever I want.
People I can relate to. There are a lot of young married couples here and it's easy to make friends. I have some great friends out here that I'm really gonna miss.
Weekend trips to Utah, I love those.
Except when I freak out about too much sky, it really is gorgeous out here. Especially the sunsets.
Everything I need (need, not want) is within 5 minutes of my apartment.
Pita Pit, Wingers, Craigos, and other delicious restaurants.
So many memories!! I won't even begin to write a list.

I feel like these things outweigh the bad for the most part, and it makes me sad! This is the first time I've left a home with no intention of ever going back. When I left Maryland, I always knew I was going back. When I was single, I went home for the summer, and since I've been married I've still visited because that's where my family is! But, that's not the case with Rexburg. There's nothing left for me here, Rexburg was for school, and now that school is over, Rexburg is over. I'm packing up all my stuff and driving it 2,000 miles across the country to my new home. It's so...surreal. So bittersweet. I don't know what to make of it!

Now onto the good news, I have a lot of the apartment packed. :) I was doing it all by myself and it was taking forever so a friend offered to help me. Man oh man, packing is soo much easier with help! I am so grateful to have friends that are willing to help me, it was so wonderful to have help with such an overwhelming task. I left out my sewing machine and a few other crafty things to help keep me sane, but those will be packed up pretty soon.

And now, the biggest news of all DAVID GOT THE INTERNSHIP!!!! Starting in January, he will be interning at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the biggest accounting firm in the world. The world!!!! I almost can't believe it, I'm so proud of him. :) This is such a huge opportunity for him and for us. He's worked so hard and he really deserves a great internship. I'm so happy that when we move back we won't be hoping he'll get an internship, we know he has one. It's so relieving and so exciting. PWC!

Yaiyaiyaiyaiyaiyaiyai. :)

More camping adventures!

2010-07-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

David and I had tons of fun camping last weekend, so we thought we'd go again one last time before we move! We went with some friends in the ward and we had a blast! I'm not the biggest camper, but it really was fun.

Our friend's truck decided to be fickle and not start when we were about to leave for the trip. This is how late it was when we finally did leave...we were really worried we wouldn't find a camp ground. We went to a few places with no luck, and finally ended up at the Warm River Campground near Targhee National Forest. The sign said the campground was full, but since it was the last place, we decided to ask just in case.

The owners felt so bad for us because we had car troubles and left late and couldn't find anywhere to camp, that they let us camp in their "back yard!" They live in a fabulous 10 person RV about 50 feet away from the banks of the river and they let us set up camp behind there RV! Not only that, they built us a fire in their own personal fire pit and set up chairs for us so we could cook our dinner. We were so grateful that there are still nice people out there. :)

I got a fire shot this time. :)

This was taken right outside our tent! We were practically in the water! It was a beautiful little shallow river and it really was warm!

We picked this particular area to camp (Targhee National Forest) because we wanted to spend some time outdoors enjoy our time left with Idaho. Here we are overlooking Henry's Fork River while on a hike.

The men were a little more daring and perched themselves on some rocks! (Eric and David.)

At the end of the hike we came to an old, collapsed train tunnel. There was a very cold breeze coming trough and you could still smell the train. It was totally creepy.

It was SO HOT! Luckily, I found a little faucet that produced some of the coldest water I've ever felt. Claire convinced me to get my hair wet so cool off and I was so glad I did! (Just to give you an idea of how hot it was, when I air dry my hair it can take up to 4 hours for it to get fully dry. I put my hair in a french braid after I got it wet and it was dry within an hour. We had to do it again!)

Freezing cold and happy. :)

After an hour of lunch and games, our final destination was Mesa Falls. David and I went together last summer, but it's hard to not be shocked by the beauty of the Falls, even if you have seen it before. :)

GORGEOUS!

Claire and I kept stopping to take pictures of all the pretty flowers during our hikes. :)

Did I ever mention that David LOVES root beer? I mean, LOVES it? He about freaked when we saw this on the way home. :) He wanted to take it home with us and display it.

After we got home and showered (twice) we hooked up with our friends again to enjoy delicious steak. Man I love steak! We went to the grocery store at 11:45pm (15 minutes before it closed...) to grab some stuff for Sunday (since I don't shop on Sunday). When we left I looked at my watch and noticed it was after midnight and therefore it was 7.18...the day David proposed to me! We scurried on up to where he proposed and reenacted the "Yes, I will marry you!" picture!

7.18.08 The original "Yes! I will marry you!" I was so thrilled that night. :)

7.18.09 One year anniversary of the engagement.

7.18.10 Two years since he proposed! Notice my sunburn, lol.

And still happily married. :) (Even more sunburn on my nose! David has way worse sunburn, but it's all on his arms.)

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. :) This was our last fun weekend...at this time next week our entire apartment needs to be packed because we're packing up the moving truck Monday and leaving for our four day drive back east early Tuesday! Ahhh!!!

Wow!

2010-07-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

My Nauctical Bag was featured on Fireflies and Jellybeans Show off Your Stuff Party favorites! I am so excited! I'll be putting this button on my sidebar. :)

Thanks Fireflies and Jellybeans for my first feature! :)

UPDATE: I can't believe my luck!! My Nautical Bag was featured again!!This time on Under the Table and Dreaming. Thanks Stephanie Lynn. :)

Nautical Bag

2010-07-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I saw a great bag at DownEast Outfitters (same place where I got the $10 wedding dress!) For some reason I couldn't find it on their website or anywhere else I checked online, so you'll have to deal with horrendous pictures from inside the dressing room.

I loved the idea of the bag, but there were a few things that I didn't like about it. The fact that it was black striped (the name "sea striped bag" seemed like it had to be blue!), the ropes weren't "ropey" enough...

the pleats at the bottom and the strange, metallic/ silvery liner with a weird green zipper.

But that's the beauty of doing it yourself, you can make it how you want it! And that's exactly what I did. Here's the final product!

I looooove how it turned out! It was a serious pain in the butt to make (trial and error and I are very good friends now) but the end result was worth it! It's blue striped, pleat-less, with nice "ropey" straps....

And and has a nice, clean white liner with pockets for everything I need!

Now here comes the fun part! I'm going to walk you through how I did it! But please keep in mind that I screwed up A LOT while I was making this, so my process isn't perfect. :)

You will need:

1/3 yard of blue striped, home decor fabric (it took me forever to find this, but I finally found it at Ikea!)
1/3 yard white liner fabric
scrap of red home decor fabric (this will be your base)
1 1/3 yard (4 ft) of soft rope (I found mine at Wal*Mart by the trims)
1 package red quilt binding
Fabric glue (like Fabritac)
Usual sewing notions (sewing machine, thread, scissors, pins, seam ripper, etc)

Gathered your materials? Let's get started! *Note: I used a 1/4" seam unless otherwise stated.

You'll need to figure out what you want the base of your bag to be. (The original bag was round, but I though an oval would look better.) I found a small storage basket with an oval base and traced it with my disappearing ink pen.

Cut out your base and then find the circumference, but don't worry, you don't need a calculator or equations! Just use your measuring tape and lay it along your traced shape. Easy peasy! Keep that number in mind, you'll need it when you make your pattern.

This next part is a little confusing, I hope it makes sense! My oval had a 27.5" circumference, so I added a half inch to get 28" (Remember we need to add the half inch for 1/4" inch seam allowance on each side). Since the bag has two sides, each side of the bag needed to be half of my 28" (14") at the base. I wanted the bag to be symmetrical, so when I was making my pattern, I folded a piece of freezer paper in half and drew my pattern, making sure that the base of my bag was 7". That way, when I cut out and unfolded my pattern, I would have a perfectly symmetrical bag with a 14" base! Phew...does that make sense?

This is what my pattern ended up looking like. I added in my measurements to help give you an idea of what the dimensions of my bag are. Cut two pieces from your striped fabric.

Next, you'll need to repeat all the the steps with your liner fabric (though this time, you don't have to figure out all of the math or draw a new pattern! Huzzah!) You should then have six pieces of fabric: one red base, two blue striped pieces cut out from your pattern, one white base, and two white pieces cut out from your pattern. If you want any pockets on the inside, make sure to cut those out too!

Pin your blue striped pieces with the right sides together and sew up the sides with a straight stitch. Sew another zig zag stitch right next to your original stitch for added strength.

Then, pin your base on! This can be tricky, but just be patient and make sure everything lines up. Sew around the base, and then again with a zig zag stitch.

See? This helps make the bag stronger.

Moving onto the liner! If you want to add pockets, now is the time to do so. I cut out two 8x10 pieces out of my liner fabric, folded them in half (right sides together), sewed around leaving a few inches to turn, turned them right side out, and pressed flat.

Pin your pockets onto the right side of your liner and make sure it's all straight and even.

Sew around the sides and bottom of the pocket. Now, this is much easier if you do this BEFORE you assemble your liner. A friend called me while I was working on the bag so when I came back I jumped right into sewing together my liner, completely forgetting about the pockets. Oops!

Next, repeat the assembly process with your liner. Sew the sides together, and then add the oval base to the bottom. You should now have two bags, one made out of your blue striped/red fabrics, and one made out of your liner!

Now we've got to add the rope handles! You need two pieces of two foot long rope (or shorter, if that's what you like!) Slightly fray out the bottom to make it easier to sew through and pin it on the wrong side of the "pointy" part of your liner. Sew across the rope several times and test it to make sure it's secure. Repeat with the other side of the rope on the same side of the liner, and then do the whole thing again with the other rope!

This is what you should have right now. A liner with handles! Now we get to assemble the bag!

Put the liner into the striped bag with the wrong sides together. When you look inside, it should look like the inside of a purse, with no exposed raw edges (except for the ones at the top.)

When it's all lined up (take extra care lining up the raw edges at the top of the bag, this is where it counts) pin the bag together. I pinned farther down because I wanted the bag to stay together, but I also wanted room to pin on the quilt binding.

This to me was the trickiest part of the bag (this was my first time using quilt binding, and I've only used bias tape once!). Use your quilt binding to hid the raw edges all around the top of your bag. (You'll need to cut different sizes and different angles, don't try to use just one continuous piece!) Pin in place.

Sew along your quilt binding, hiding the raw edges. I loved that I didn't have to do any turning right side out with this bag!

You're almost done!! I didn't use all of my quilt binding so I cut four 2 inch pieces to cover the part where the rope meets the bag (if you're like me, it's a little bit messy! But you seasoned sewers might not need this step :) I used fabric glue to secure it on the bag, then wrapped it around the rope, folded under the raw edge, and glued in place. Do it again three more times.

AND YOU'RE DONE!!! Fill it up, and go out there and flaunt your beautiful new, Nautical Bag! This would make a great gift for any lady (including yourself ;) in your life wanting a little more summertime!

By the way...I don't like having to say this, but this tutorial is for personal use only. If you use my tutorial, link back to me and give proper credit. And please don't use my tutorial to make bags to sell! Thanks!

If you have questions about it, feel free to ask me and I'll do my best to clear things up. Also, if you make a Nautical Bag using this tutorial I would love to see your final results! Email me Amikins48 (at) gmail (dot) com or leave me a comment with a link to your blog. Happy sewing!

I'm linking up to these parties! (For some reason blogger isn't letting me add buttons to this post, but each link will take you to the linky party I linked up to!)

Under the Table and Dreaming Showcase Sunday, I heart Naptime Sundae Scoop, Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up, Crystal's Craft Spot Feature Friday, Sew Can Do Craftastic Monday, Fingerprints on the Fridge Feature Yourself Friday, A Few of my Favorite Things Favorite Things Friday, Tea Rose Home Wednesday Link Party, Fireflies and Jellybeans Show off Your Stuff Party, The Girl Creative Just Something I Whipped Up Monday, Just Another Day in Paradise Christmas in July, Craft Envy Saturday Spotlight, "Tute"-in Tuesday at Oops, I craft my pants,

Camping and Car Washes

2010-07-12T15:58:00.000-07:00

We had a lot of fun camping this weekend. Last summer David was supposed to go camping with a buddy of his, so we bought a ton of camping equipment. A tent, nice sleeping bags, everything. But, at the last minute, his friend got sick and couldn't make it (he was actually going to fly out to see David). Needless to say, David was pretty bummed about it. He's been wanting to go camping ever since! Luckily, our ward had a campout this weekend and we were able to go camping together! First time ever. (Going camping together, not going camping in general. I've done plenty of that.) We went to Beaver Dick Park, no kidding, that's the real name. I had to take a picture, just to prove it.

It's a great little park. I've been there many times to attend the annual "Beaver Dick Bash" but I don't know for the life of me why it has that name. Won't forget it though, will you?

We bought this tent really on sale. It says it's a two man tent, and it's not kidding. We also bought a full sized air mattress (From D.I. only 7 bucks!) and this picture is my attempt to show that the air mattress COMPLETELY took up the tent. It fit in very snugly, with no extra room whatsoever!

We did fun things like brush our teeth with water bottles, use latrines, cook all kind of hot dogs over a fire (my favorites were the pineapple dogs and cheese filled dogs!) and chat with friends. There weren't very many photo ops...so this is really the only picture I have. But, you can picture it in your head. Tents, sleeping bags, blazing fires, marshmallows, hot dogs, yeah you got it!

On the way home we decided the car needed a wash. I love this car wash, it's a self car wash and you pay by the minute, so you can get it done fast for cheap. (Which isn't what happened...but it's the idea that counts!) My favorite part of the car wash though is the multicolored foam. LOVE IT! It changes colors while you use it and so your whole car looks like its covered in melted Lucky Charms marshmallows. It's so much fun!

You just can't help but play with this foam!

See? You can see the pink and yellow and blue all mixed in!

This is why it took so long to wash the car. :)

After a not-so-long night of camping, we needed refreshment. We made orange juice with our juicer. I just thought the bowl of naked oranges looked funny. :)

Ikea Swedish Meatballs

2010-07-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

I think Swedish meatballs are delicious. I think Ikea Swedish meatballs are the most delicious! On our drive down to Utah last weekend I begged David to let us stop Ikea. Even though we're moving across the country in a few weeks he agreed. I said to him, "I'm not planning on buying anything, I just love to look around. Besides, I want some Swedish meatballs." He replied with, "What do Swedish meatballs have to do with Ikea?"

!!!!!!!!!!

My eyes about popped out of my head. This guy had never been to Ikea before! Um, hello??? Swedish meatballs have EVERYTHING to do with Ikea! Now we really had to stop and get this guy some meatballs! Our first stop the cafe was closed, so obviously we had to go back again.

David experiencing his first Ikea Swedish meatball! He only got five meatballs (this was right before all-you-can-eat-sushi) so he has this tiny little bowl with five little meatballs on this giant tray. Haha. I wanted to bring a bag of frozen ones home, but since Ikea is 4 hours away from home, I didn't think they would make it. Luckily, I discovered a book called "Swedish Cooking" in the store! (I searched the Ikea website and several others but can't find the book anywhere online...) I was really excited, now I could make Swedish meatballs at home! And that's exactly what I did this week.

Ikea Swedish Meatballs (Recipe from "Swedish Cooking")
Ingredients:
1 onion (I only used half)
1 tbsp butter
1 lb mixed ground meat, such as beef and veal (only had beef, worked just fine!)
1 egg
2 1/2 cups breadcrumbs
salt
pepper
1 cup milk
1/2 bunch parsley
2 tbsp butter/lard for cooking

Peel and chop the onion. Melt the butter in a pan and saute the onion. Thoroughly combine the meat with the egg and breadcrumbs, then mix in the onion. Season the meat mixture with salt and pepper and knead into a smooth mass. Add enough milk to keep it supple (I didn't use the entire cup). Finley chop the parsley and stir into the meat mixture. With damp hands, form small balls from the mass (I got almost 30 out of it). Heat butter or lard in a pan and brown the meatballs on all sides (Mine took about 12 minutes until they were done, use a meat thermometer for more accuracy on done-ness). Serve with rice.

NOMS!!!!! (I had more of a meatrectangle going on there on the left! Mmm, nice and steamy) They were absolutely delicious! For this particular batch a used I cream sauce packet I got from Ikea while we were there. But...I'm kind of a sauce hog. We had leftover meatballs but no leftover sauce! So, obviously I had to find a way to get some more sauce, and this recipe from recipezaar did wonderfully. :)

Cream Sauce
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 cup low sodium beef broth
1/4 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon white flour
1 tablespoon butter
salt, to taste
white pepper

Melt butter in pan and add flour, whisk till golden brown and flour is cooked. Add Beef Stock and Cream until desired thickness. Season well with salt and pepper.

Simple and delicious! Enjoy your weekend! The hubs and I are going camping. :)

I'm sharing this recipe at these parties!

WAHOO!!!!!

2010-07-07T18:26:00.000-07:00

I have an epic thrifty find for you today. I LOVE bargains, the less I pay for something, the more excited I get. I almost never buy clothes full price, which is why I love thrift stores and bargain stores. Today's post brings me to a local store called DownEast Outfitters. It's a great little store, it sells it's own line of clothes and also buys slightly damaged clothes from American Eagle, J.Crew and other stores to resell for a discount. I often see items there that I would love to refashion. That was the case today, when I was at the DownEast in the Idaho Falls mall a few weeks ago I saw a great little bag that I wanted to remake but I only got a quick glance and a crappy picture with my camera phone. I finally found the fabric that would work, so I went to the local store today to get a closer look at the bag. While I was there, I browsed through the clearance rack and hit the jackpot!!

I found this gorgeous J.Crew dress for TEN DOLLARS!!!!!! No joke! I didn't believe it when I saw the price tag. The tag said that the dress was originally $600 but the website said the dress goes for $475. But still...either way that's like 98% off!! The sash is a little dirty and there are two small snags, really, it's not noticeable at all. Buying slightly damaged is the way to save money! And it's so gorgeous, it's 100% silk, ivory, flowy, and has a train! It's called the "goddess gown" and that's def how I felt in it. :) I love it, I've been twirling around in it all day! I don't care that it's a little big in the top and I need to take it in, and I don't care that I have no where to wear a gorgeous evening gown. I have a beautiful new dress that only cost me 10 bucks! I'm super, super psyched. I will def be looking around for more slightly damaged clothes in the future!

In other news, David just found his first gray hair. Literally, as I was writing this post he came to me and showed me. Can you believe it? 25 years old and already has gray hairs. Maybe it's because I buy expensive dresses...oh wait. It was only 10 dollars. :D

See it? It's from his sideburn so it's extra short, but it's still there!!

I told him to make his "I just found my first gray hair face" and this is what he gave me. That crazy kid, most people wouldn't be this excited.

Update: Lol, I just found out that the dress is a wedding dress. Too bad I already got married!

4th of July weekend

2010-07-06T09:36:00.000-07:00

You know what? Even three day weekends are too short. :( I vote that we have week long weekends yeah? I had an amazing weekend down in Sandy with my family. Here are the highlights!

The traditional 4th of July temporary tattoo! This year we got henna tattos. They say "rabbit" (my Chinese year), "prosperity", and "snake". I like this picture best because none of us were ready.

Truly ginromous, award winning burgers (with hot dogs!)

OneRepiblic concert!! It was awesome! I've only been to one other "real" concert before (I've been to tons of concerts with local bands and lesser known bands, but not "big" bands) so it was really fun.

Courtney and my Uncle Tracy.

We had lawn seats so I didn't get the best pictures, but it was still a blast!

My and my cousins. We were up in the mountains and it was SOOOO cold once the sun set over the mountains! I'm wearing two sweatshirts and I was still freezing.

Experimenting with the firework setting on my camera.

Cute kitty! He posed for this one, no joke! I was taking lots of pictures of him and he just walked into the corner, sat down, looked at me and held this pose. So cute!

On the way home we stopped for all you can eat sushi with David's sister. Now, here is the picture of the front of the place. No cars, cheap sign, kinda scary looking. We actually decided to go to another place but it ended up being closed, and since we were set on all you can eat sushi, we came back.

When we went inside and it was swanky! It had this gorgeous koi pond with these gigantic fish and waterfalls. Seriously, we were all blown away with how nice it was inside. Lesson learned: Don't judge a book by it's cover!

YUMMY sushi!! Between the four of us we shared like 18 rolls. I basically couldn't move afterwards, but dang I love sushi!

Kim, Chrisie (David's sister) and David. If you look closely, I'm actually in the picture too! We sat behind a mirror, look between Chrisie and David! Teehee.

Next to the sushi place was an arcade called Nickle City. David went to the same kind of arcade when he was a kid, so he really wanted to check it out. He got 100 nickles and we went to town!! Most games only took 1 or 2 nickles, so we were there forever. We raced, shot bad guys, and played games we played when we were kids.

My favorite was Dr. Mario, I LOVE Dr. Mario! I usually play it on my SNES emulator, so it was super hard to play it as an arcade game!

We had a great weekend! What did you do?

Happy Independence Day!

2010-07-04T22:46:00.000-07:00

To all my fellow Americans! I hope everyone had a day filled with fun, family, and fireworks. And I hope you took the time to reflect on how blessed we are to live in a free country and say a little prayer for the ones fighting to keep it that way.

I love fireworks. :)

Patriotic Skirt

2010-07-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

Since Independence Day is on a Sunday this year, I decided to make a patriotic skirt for the occasion. I had originally thought to use this fabulous thrift store find (a yard a half for a buck, love it!) as some quilted place mats, but I couldn't really find a red and white fabric (for the stripes) that I thought would match. This fabric is kinda vintage-y and whimsical, and I just couldn't find anything that looked good with it. So, a skirt it became! I used this 20-minute skirt tutorial from Ruffles and Stuff (a blog that I absolutely love!) but I changed a few things to make it easier for me.

Changes:

I wanted mine to twirl when I spun around (I was in a nostalgic mood today I guess. :) so instead of one piece of fabric that was 1.5x my hip measurement, I used two pieces. It worked perfectly, and it was extra ruffly.
I used 1" elastic (because that's all I could find...)
I sewed two rows of machine basting (one with 1/4" allowance and one with 1/2" allowance).
Instead of one long row of basting all across the length of the fabric, I did my two rows halfway across the fabric, left long threads, and then basted along the other half. This gives you more threads to pull to make the ruffles.

These last two steps add a little extra time to the 20 minutes, but I think it makes the ruffling part SO MUCH EASIER. (For me at least.) Having threads to pull in the middle of the fabric helps prevent the thread from breaking too. Easy, and I really like the way it turned out.

I wish I had a better place in my house to take pictures, but I really don't. It's a tiny apartment, and there are no blank walls. So, sorry you have to look at my front door all the time. And sorry about my wonky hair, it's been 80+ degrees in my house and it's just too hot to blow dry my hair. I also need to learn how to pose, hmmm, there are many things wrong with this picture.

PS, the red top is my very first refashion, attempted after this tuxedo top from DownEast Outfitters.

This is my attempt to show that it is "twirly." It's very fun. :) I'm wishing now that I'd made more decorations for the apartment, but we're moving at the end of the month so I'm not really seeing the point of trying to prettify my house.

What are you doing for The Fourth? David and I are headed down to Sandy to visit family and see OneRepublic! Last Fourth of July was one of the best weekends of my life, so I'm pretty excited to head down there. :)

I'm showing off my skirt at these parties!

My Life Story

2010-06-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's not my WHOLE life, but since I've been in a serious crafting funk lately, I'm entertaining you with stories of my life! Isn't this fun? Well, at least it is for me!

I was born and raised in Maryland, and I loved it. I love the humidity, I love bright green plants, I love driving through tree tunnels, I love the diversity, I love being so close to D.C., I just love it. It's so...not boring over there. I miss it a lot, the east coast is the place to be! I'm the oldest of 4 kids, I have two brothers and a sister. Jordan is 20, and he's currently serving a 2 year mission for our church (LDS/Mormon) in Seattle, Washington. I miss him, I haven't seen him for almost a year. Brandon will be a senior in high school and he is one of the smartest and funniest kids I know. Allie is going to a be a freshman in high school and does everything: gymnastics, cheerleading, multiple theater productions, she's on fi-yuh! My dad is super smart and full of stories and edits documents that most people couldn't even understand. My mom is a substitute (like me!) and is a very talented seamstress and taught me a lot of what I know now. I also have a cat, Jellybean, and I love her more than a human should love an animal.

Brandon, Jordan, David, Dad

Allie, me, Mom

My sweet baby Jellybean!!!!!

I also have a great set of in-laws. They live a half hour away from my family back home and it's great! I love being able to see my family and David's family. He is the oldest of four and has three younger sisters. Chrisie is attending BYU and is about to finish her degree. Elisa has her own horse and is a very talent rider. Carolyn is in middle school and is the baby of the family. His dad is a computer programmer and his mom is a very talented wood crafter.

From the left: David's mom, David's Dad, David, me, Elisa, Carolyn, and Chrisie.

I used wedding pictures because they're really the only ones I have where everyone is together. It's hard with so many of us living in different states.

Anyway, moving forward in life. In elementary school I wanted to be an artist. I still do, I love drawing, painting, sketching and sculpting. I loved school, and I was very friendly. My 8th birthday party had to be held outside because everyone wouldn't fit inside! (Good thing I have a spring birthday huh?) I participated in a lot of sports (even karate!) but I loved gymnastics the most.

In middle school I started to solidify my interests, taking art classes and a sewing class. I loved both, but after a little mishap with the sewing machine (I sewed my finger, full story here) I stuck with art (a little less hazardous). In high school I took up different sports after I "retired" from gymnastics (gymnasts peak really, really young in life, and usually "retire" very young as well). I ran cross country, long and short distance track, and I managed the tennis team. I took pottery classes to expand my artistic horizon, but I found that my real passion was with teaching. I took child development and I taught at a preschool and realized I loved it, so that's what I decided to major in in college. I was even lucky enough to combine my love for art and my love for teaching into one job as an art teacher at summer camp.

I LOVED college. I went to BYU-Idaho and graduated last year. I met some of the most amazing people and had the time of my life! My first two years were spent dating (no kidding here, I was a HUGE flirt and I went on dates with anyone and everyone. I once went on three dates in a day and five dates in one weekend (all with different people, I should add). I was extremely social, my weekends were never dull. Yet, I still managed to get good grades. I got lucky! Just before my junior year I met my husband at an airport (full, and very good story I might add, here.) We fell in love and were married the next year. Since then I have finished college and have a degree in Elementary Education and David will be done in July.

Since I'm graduated and have free time for the first time in...forever, I took up crafting. I love creating, I love sewing, I love drawing, and I'm taking advantage of all my free time to indulge my interests!

So that's my life! Hope it was at least semi interesting. :) Enjoy your hump day!

Update: Just because, here is a list of things I love.

I love David.

I love my family (all of them!).

I love my church.

I love cats (ESP my Jellybean!).

I love pink.

I love sewing, crafting, and cooking.

I love tiny things.
I love going to the movies.
I love old men.

I love Salem Saberhagen.

I love free stuff.
I love thunderstorms.
I love macaroni and cheese.

I love thrift stores.

I love checking the mail (ESP when there is a package for me. :D)

I love a clean house.

I love lemonade.
I love buying fabric.

I love spring.

I love a lot of things, I'll probably add more later :)

Things I don't love...

I don't like bees, I am terrified of them.

I don't like jerk drivers.

I don't like moving.

I don't like being ignored.

I don't like it when characters I like are killed on shows I watch.

Linking up to Crystal's Challenge!

Sorry Folks

2010-06-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

I've been sick all week. Again. On Sundays the hubs and I work in Nursery (for my non-LDS readers, Nursery is basically a free babysitting service for children 18 months to three years during church hours) and this is the second time I've gotten sick after working. We tell the parents not to bring their children in if they are sick or experiencing certain symptoms because there are 15 very young children is a small room for a few hours and it's very easy to spread germs...but they still bring them in. I can understand wanting to be free of your young child for a few hours without having to pay but it's not fair to us Nursery workers or the other kids to be exposed to sicknesses like this. Sigh. So, that's why I've been boring, I have no energy to do anything. Can't wait till I'm over this. Sorry to complain, hope everyone else is having a good weekend! :)

Am I allowed to think something I made is cute?

2010-06-23T18:21:00.000-07:00

Because I kind of do. For some reason I've been in a "mine" stage. I don't know what else to call it, I've been wanting to design things, and only make things that I designed. Most of my craftyness is a combination of something that I thought up and things that I saw online that I liked. But lately, it's only been "my" things. So, this is what I've come up with.

This is my "alium." Really simple, I just traced circular things I had in the house. I'm experimenting with anti-pill fleece (left) and regular fleece (right.) I actually think that the anti-pill looks more "old" and worn out. But sadly, I have almost a yard of it to use. I'll be using some of it on another version of...

This! I call him Steggy. Stegosauruses are my favorite dinosaur. Obviously this one was a little more complex so there are still kinks to work out with my pattern (notice the awkward tail...the spikes got stuck in the tail and now it's all weird!) But i think it's cute. I'll try it with the fleece next, for this one I just used scraps of cotton since I knew I would have to alter some things.

The Makeup Birthday Weekend

2010-06-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

Since David pretty much got shafted last weekend for his birthday, we made up for it this weekend! The nearest "big city" is Idaho Falls, about a half hour away from our tiny Rexburg, so we usually spend our fun days in Idaho Falls. We had a blast!

Secret about me: I'm a sucker for cute old men. In Barnes and Nobel we met Alan E. Gray at his book signing. He was one of the cutest and nicest old men I've ever met! We chatted for a while and it was really fun. I just love the stories that they tell.

David has been wanting a juicer forever, and he decided that's what he wanted to spend his money on. We shopped around a lot, and noticed this fail on one of the boxes. No thanks, I don't want any "beat" juice, but I'd be ok with some beet juice! You'd think that a big company would notice a spelling error like this! Don't they have editors? We laughed.

We eventually decided on a juicer we liked, and we've used it three times already. We made apple juice, cantaloupe/mango/mint juice, but my favorite had been the lemonade. We bought four pounds (yes, pounds) of lemons and peeled (it was so strange to peel a lemon...) them and threw them in. It yielded a ton of lemon juice to make a ton of lemonade! We learned that lemonade is a very exact science, we tried out recipes combined with trial and error and spent like 45 minutes trying to make the perfect lemonade. During the process I tested the lemon juice to see how potent it was. Now, I am very much a sour person, my ideal sour candy will burn the taste buds off my tongue with just a few candies, so I thought I could handle tasting it more than anyone else. I was wrong, it was SOUR!! I can't even remember the last time I puckered because something was sour, but this lemon juice made me do it! It was fun, and I don't think I'll ever go back to fake lemonade again!

If you read my blog regularly and/or and have known me for a while, you know that my word of choice to convey excitement is "huzzah." Not many people use it, so I was pretty excited to see this!

Ever seen the show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives? This diner, Dixie's Diner, was featured on it! We wanted to visit this "famous" diner as part of our adventure.

It was too cute! It had a working jukebox and everything! And the food was delicious!!!

We tried to order more "authentic" diner food. I got a chili, cheese, kraut dog and David got a delicious sammie (sandwich, that is). I can def see why this diner was on the show, such good food!!

Idaho is big on huckleberries, so we got a huckleberry milkshake. It even had real berries in the mix! If you've never had a huckleberry before try and find them. They're delicious, like a cross between a blueberry and a blackberry.

I think he enjoyed his makeup birthday weekend. :)

Dad's Reuben Sandwiches

2010-06-18T12:08:00.000-07:00

Do you know what is bliss? My dad's Reuben Sandwiches. And my bliss, I mean like died-and-gone-to-heaven bliss. I mean I-could-eat-this-everyday bliss. I mean OH-MY-GOSH bliss. SO GOOD. The funny thing is...I don't like most of the ingredients in Reuben Sandwiches by themselves. HATE Swiss cheese, not fond of rye, corned beef is gross. Yet...these ooey, gooey, artery cloggers are SO incredibly delicious. I've had Reubens at restaurants but none of them were as yummy as these. Maybe because I find thousand island dressing to be disgusting...and this perfect recipe has none! But...I guess if you want, you can taint the perfectness of this recipe with thousand island to make it more authentic...but, I don't recommend it.

Dad's Reuben Sandwiches (makes 4)
8 slices Russian rye bread
1 12 oz can corned beef
4-8 slices Swiss cheese (depends on how cheesy you like your sandwich, I use 2 per sandwich myself :D)
1 14.5 oz can sauerkraut
mayo (I also use mustard)
butter

Spread mayo onto bread slices. Add Swiss cheese then sauerkraut. Slice corned beef into about 8 slices (this is easier if it's refrigerated for 30 minutes or so) and place on top of sauerkraut. Add second slice of bread to make a sandwich. Liberally butter outsides of sandwich. Heat butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add sandwiches and fry until golden brown (a few minutes). Flip, fry on other side until golden brown. The cheese should be melted and the inside warm. Serve immediately. Now, I mean so immediately, that you should have everyone already at the table eating their veggies and then as soon as the sandwiches are done, put them on their plates. There should be no down time between cooking at eating! :)

OMG!!! There are not many things I love more than this sandwich. Even if you don't like Reubens, I suggest trying it anyway. I don't like any of these ingredients alone, but together, it's magic.

UH-MAZE-ING!!!!!! I made them for dinner the other night, and I'm making one now for lunch. :D

He's home! :)

2010-06-16T16:58:00.000-07:00

Even though he missed his flight, the hubs made it home Saturday evening. I was really bummed, I had the entire day planned out (breakfast in bed, fishing, presents, Idaho Falls adventures, dinner, movie) but since he got home much later, we only had time for dinner.

He loves Red Robin and before I was married, Red Robin was always the choice for birthday dinners. Throw in the gift card from his mom, and it was a perfect dinner!

I don't know how many of you know this, but mac and cheese is my favorite food. Has been since I was two. I LOVE mac and cheese. I usually don't order it in restaurant, since I can make it myself very easily, but this one sounded too good to pass up. I was so right, this mac and cheese was sooo delicious!!

For dessert, we had the banana ice cream I made! To jazz it up, I also added chocolate chips. Without an ice cream maker it turned out a little bit ice crystal-y, but overall I think it was a success!!

(Pre frozen, but still delicious!!)

And I finished David's robe! The duckies really were for my own amusement...but I think he likes it, he's actually used it! It was def the longest project I've taken on, but it wasn't the hardest! I might even make another one! (Isn't he so cute with his messed up, wet hair??)

We saw this shirt while we were out and I want to recreate it, I think it's sooo cute. (Wasn't on sale, so I didn't buy it).

Even though it was short, I think he had a good day. :) Until next time!

Our Story

2010-06-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

An old friend requested that I post the story of how David and I met on my blog. I was happy to oblige, I don't mean to brag (ok, maybe I do a LITTLE) but I think David and I have a pretty good story. :) So, here is it! The very long (VERY long) version of how I met the love of my life. :)

It was 9.7.07 and I was sitting in the terminal at BWI, waiting for my flight to come. I was flying out west, getting ready to start my junior year at BYU-Idaho. I'm reading one of my favorite books (The secret Journal of Brett Colton, which I always read when I travel), when I hear a voice ask me "Are you Mormon?" I look up from my book, pleasantly surprised that a good-looking guy belonged to the voice. I inform him that yes, in fact, I was Mormon, and get back to my book. Before I could even read a sentence, he talks again.

"That's cool. So am I! Do you go to BYU-Idaho?" he asked.

I peer down at the BYU-Idaho T-shirt I donned, almost snapped him a sarcastic answer, but told him that yes, in fact, I did go to BYU-Idaho. (Mini-intermission story! It was my Dad's idea to have me wear that shirt. My freshman year of college, he told me that if you wear a distinguishing shirt, such as a college or a concert t-shirt, you would attract people with similar interests and be able to strike up conversations. As a result, I ALWAYS wore the exact same BYU-Idaho t-shirt when I traveled. So, thanks Dad, for helping my find my husband. :)

"That's cool. So do I." he wittingly replied.

"Wonderful" I responded, and, once again, tried to read my book. But alas, he kept talking to me and wouldn't stop!! We were flying Southwest which has open seating, and my section was called to board before his was. I thought I could escape him by sitting by the window and staring outside until everyone boarded. But no. The one and ONLY time I look up, he passed by. At that exact moment! He asked if the seat next to me was taken, and since it wouldn't have been very moral to lie, I told him that it wasn't and that he could sit there. All the while worrying what in the world I was gonna do with this guy that wouldn't shut up for the next five hour long flight. I shoved my headphones in as soon as I was able to prevent him from talking to me anymore, and soon fell asleep. I awoke just an hour later, and he "woke up" at precisely the same moment I did. Watching me sleep? I think so. Before I could even rub my eyes he pounced on me, asking me every question that popped into his head. I can't exactly say we "hit it off," but, between you and me, I knew that I was going to marry him during that plane ride. Believe me, I dismissed the thought (I had a boyfriend at the time) and I began to think I was a little crazy, but I knew that he would eventually be my husband.

Finally the plane landed, and though we had a long but pleasant conversation (which included Potter Puppet Pals), I was ready to escape the weirdo. I said goodbye and hurried off to baggage claim, hoping mine would come quickly so I could leave. However, my plans were foiled once again. I found my Grandpa who had come ot pick me up, and he came running up to me and oh-so-boldly asked me for my number (in front of my Grandpa!). My brain told me no, after all, he was a stranger and who knew what kind of person he really was, but for some reason my mouth formed the word "yes." Doomed. I gave him my number and never expected to hear from him. Guessing wrongly seemed to be the trend early in our relationship.

A few days later some friends and I decided to get a group together and go to the cheap theater in town and see Ratatouille. Since school hadn't started yet and I hadn't had the chance to meet cute new boys (did I mention that my relationship with my boyfriend was in the toilet?), I decided "What the heck, I don't know anybody else" and invited him to come. He texted me during the entire movie. Good thing I had already seen it. :) And thus began our constant text fest. Whoever said you can't build a good relationship through texting obviously never met us. We became good friends fast, he made me want to be a better person.

He gave me the final push to dump my boyfriend and start over and was right there waiting to sweep me up again. (Literally, MINUTES later.) I wasn't ready, I had JUST dumped my boyfriend of two years and I just wasn't ready to date again. I told him I needed time. I got back home and told the story to my roommate (and very best friend). She confessed to me that she was developing a crush on David, and asked if she could go after him. I didn't like him (yet...) and I had basically just dumped him, so, I gave her the go. Biggest mistake of my life.

We became closer and closer, and I was falling for him more and more every day. It was clear that he still wanted me, but I didn’t want to betray my best friend by “taking” him away, so I didn’t do anything. I couldn’t! By Halloween, I was completely smitten. But I couldn't tell HIM (or my roommate…)that, I had already told him (and her!) I didn't want him. Oops. I kept it to myself but by Thanksgiving I was going completely mad not having him as my own. His 10 day absence during Thanksgiving break made it quite clear that I was absolutely in love with him; I had basically lost my will to live without him there. At this point he noticed that I had it bad, and he decided to re-attempt dating me. He finally succeeded, and we began officially dating in December.

You know how it is. Long walks on the beach, romantic poetry by candlelight, and all that jazz. Except it was Rexburg. In winter. So it was more like long walks trying not to slip and fall all the while laughing at the others attempts to stay up, and cute guitar songs played in my living room. A rather cute courtship, if I do say so myself. :) As the seasons progressed, it became clearer and clearer that any day without him wasn’t worth living. Apparently he thought the same.

On 7.18.08 I was returning to Idaho from a week long trip to Utah. When I arrived late that night, I only had untill noon the next day to pack up all my stuff and clean my entire apartment before my contract ended and I was kicked out. I had to hurry, but David decided it would be fun to completely ruin my plans. I was able to pack for a few hours until he announced that we "needed a break." We went up to a small field by a church where we often go to look at the stars. He brought three things with him: his laptop, a blanket to lay on, and shapless bundle. He laid out the blanket and told me how he had discovered he could make movies on his computer, and proceeded to show me a cute montage of pictures of us set to "our song." Of course it was adorable, and after a second time he turned his attention towards the odd looking object. He explained to me that this "present" had a poem inside of it he wanted me to read. I pulled a toy plane from the old t-shirt he had wrapped it in, and inside the cockpit was a folded up piece of paper, as well as a wadded up piece of the t-shirt. :D I read the adorable poem, and then unraveled the beautiful ring!! He took it from my hands and proceeded to propose. :) We were married 12.19.08 and it has been bliss.

I love this picture from our wedding for three reasons. 1) I think we look so blissfully happy. 2) The special editing looks pretty. 3) You can see my brothers in the background chatting and having a great time, but David and I are too into each other to notice. :)

Happy 25th Birthday David!!

2010-06-11T10:12:00.000-07:00

Today is the hubs 25th birthday! The majority of his trip away has been bearable, but today I really miss him. Last year I was Girls Camp director, and Girls Camp happened during his birthday. I was able to sneak home for a few hours, but I was sad because it's his special day you know? I wanted to make it special! This year I was excited because I wasn't going to have anything to do, but then his expedition overlapped! I don't know, I just feel bad, it's his day and I can't do anything for him except call him (which I did, at midnight :D). We're going to celebrate tomorrow (he gets home late tonight...I mean early tomorrow morning!) but it's just not the same. It's funny, I'm the one getting all sad about this, he doesn't care at all. :P

(Don't you love it when you find a song that EXACTLY portrays how your feeling? Incubus-I Miss You, does exactly that. Every single word!!!)

On a happier note, I also conquered another pattern!! Simplicity 5314, A. It took a while, but I wasn't on the phone nearly as long with my mom this time (not that I don't like talking to my mom...)! And I wasn't nearly as frustrated! I'm getting better! Woot!! I'll make David model it and post a picture later.

And just because he's so handsome...

This is his birthday last year, I made him a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, all from scratch! It was a real learning experience for me! This year I'm making him homemade banana ice cream...I hope he likes it!

Bad News....David missed his flight. I hate everything right now. :(

Easy Peasy No-Sew Flower Pins

2010-06-08T23:56:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've ever updated my blog this much. But I have an excuse, I can't sleep! It's just one of those nights. So, I thought I would show you what I made this weekend!

I was lucky enough to snag this bag of trim at the local thrift store in town.

Two bucks for all of this! I was really excited, even though I didn't have any idea what I would do with it. I'm not a quilt-maker, nor am I currently involved with any projects that would require lace or trim of any kind. So, I started playing around with it, and eventually came up with...

...these! Flower pins! As much as I love sewing, I loved that these required none. Super easy, super fast, super cheap! (Some trim can go for as little as 27 cents a yard, and I used about a foot of trim in each flower. Talk about a bargain!) Using the existing ruffles and other patterns from the trim helped make each one unique. I really like how they turned out!

Updated Note: When I was linking up to Tea Rose Home's Linky Party, I noticed that she and several other bloggers recently participated in a challenge at M&J Trims where each participant received a box of trims and were challenged to make something out of what was in the box. Many participants made flowers out of their trims to include in other projects. I just want to clarify that I am not trying to pass off another's idea as my own. The following tutorial is the result of my own playing around with extra trims that I bought at the thrift store. Thank you.

Want to make one of your own? You will need the following:

Trim of your choice (I used about a foot (12 inches) in each of my single layer flowers.)
Coordinating felt (enough for a 1'' diameter circle)
Scissors
Hot glue gun
Pin back (can be found at most craft stores)
Accent for the middle (I used a button and other accents that I found in my stash)

Got everything? Great! Onto the next step.

Cut a one inch circle out of your felt. It doesn't have to be perfect, it is likely you will be trimming it down after you're done gluing.

Next, glue down the edge of your trim with a dot of hot glue (you really don't need much). Begin making small pleats by folding the trim over back onto itself and securing with another dot of hot glue. Remember, the smaller you make your pleats, the smaller the ruffles will be, and the more trim you will need to go around the felt circle.

Don't forget to glue the trim onto the circle every few pleats!

Continue to make pleats all the way around the felt, following the curve of the circle.

Trim off any extra trim (haha!), but make sure to leave enough to fold under.

Fold the edge of the trim under (to hide any raw edges) and glue in place.

Add the center of your flower, whatever floats your boat!

Turn flower over and trim off any excess felt to reduce bulk. Glue the pin back on and you're done!!

Pin them anywhere that needs a little bit of "prettying up." These flowers are really easy and customizable, use whatever you have on hand and make it your own! I experimented with doubling up the trims (As seen in the lace one. And please, if you are using lace trim, don't burn your fingers when you push the trim down on the hot glue like I did, it hurts) and making individual petals of a flower (not pictured). The possibilities really are endless, these are just what I came up with in the half hour I was experimenting. I plan on creating more, just as soon as all of these birthdays pass (starting yesterday I have my brother, my mom, my husband, and one of my best friend's birthday's in the space of five days. I've got a lot of creating/planning/shipping to do!)

Did anyone notice the tiny little stars stitched onto this trim? It's my favorite part, stars are one of my favorite things and when I noticed it I was so giddy! It's the little things in life. :)

Also, if you happen to make any flowers out of this tute, I would LOVE to see what you came up with! Leave me a link to your blog if you posted it, or email me! Amikins48(at)gmail(dot)com. Happy crafting!

I'm linking up to:

Alone for the week

2010-06-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

Early, early this morning this morning I said farewell to the hubs for the week. He's headed to D.C. on an expedition to find an internship and he'll be gone until Saturday, I miss him already. :( It's a really good opportunity for him though, he's got TONS of interviews lined up with some of the top accounting firms in the country (three of the "Big Four!") and the prospects are really high. He even has one of those all day interviews lined up where they take interviewees (is that a word?) out to lunch! I'm really excited for him, he's so motivated to get a good internship and I have a feeling he's going to come home with a great one. :) And lucky him, he's also going to get to see our families! We are so blessed to have both of our families live so close to each other.

I really admire all you army wives and other wives that have husbands who are gone for extended periods of time. What's the secret? I'm having a hard time with it, we don't have kids, or a pet, and since school is out for the summer I don't have a job either (working on that though). I'm just home all the time, with nothing to do. I guess that makes it worse, keeping busy has always helped when we've been apart in the past. Still, I can't wait for him to come home. Four more days!

A picture from his website. He's just so handsome all dressed up!

Great Weekened!

2010-06-07T11:16:00.000-07:00

I had such a great weekend with my family! Spontaneous trips are always the most fun. :) Here's a look at what we did.

We went black light mini golfing (and somehow managed to line up all of our golf balls in a row!)

And we went to the arcade (and only got enough tickets to get candy prizes). David cheated at this boat racing game, he landed on top of me on purpose!

My favorite part of the trip was BEAR WORLD!! Bear World is a branch of West Yellowstone, a small(ish) park with animals that you drive through. Like a drive through zoo! It's a blast!!!

I loved how the baby bear was "chillin" while we took pictures of him. SO CUTE!!! This little guy was born in January and already knows how to work the camera.

The bear fries climbing Ice Cream Mountain.

Seriously, I love Bear World. It was so many fun things to do! We were there all morning and most of the afternoon!

They also had a free petting zoo! (You can't see it now, but I actually got sunburned! For future reference, even if it is kind of chilly, you can still get sunburned.)

And surprisingly fun rides.

We also went back around the park on a special tour where we got to feed the big bears! They would sit down and try to catch the food in their mouths. This one is in the middle of waving. :)

It really was a fun weekend. We took a walk from my apartment up the hill to the Rexburg temple. I thought the lighting was great for some up close pictures.

I love this temple. It sits right on top of the hill and you can see it from miles and miles away. :) (It was too bright for David to open his eyes.)

To top off the weekend we went bowling. (Apparently we like to do things that involve black lights. :D) I actually sort of won the second game! We had an hour of playing time but our second game got cut short. I was in the lead at that time, so I declare myself the winner. :D

What did you do this weekend? Anything fun? I also did some fun crafting, but I'll save that for later this week. :) But just to give you a sneak peak...

Surprise Visit!

2010-06-04T16:23:00.000-07:00

I am having surprise visitors this weekend! My cousin and my uncle decided it would be fun to come up and visit and I am SO excited!! I never get visitors, who wants to visit Rexburg, Idaho? Either way, there will be a blogging break this weekend, but I'm sure I will have plenty to update on Monday. :)

I will leave you with a cute. I spent the day yesterday going around to all the lemonade stands around town. This was my favorite buy, a kitty shaped lollipop! Best 50 cents I ever spent. :)

Success!!!

2010-06-01T09:38:00.000-07:00

I did it!! I took on Simplicity 2414 and won!! Mwahahaha! I feel so accomplished, even though my mom basically walked me through it (and bought it for me...and bought me the material), I still conquered a pattern. Woot! Now I feel ready to take on another one AND I have a new, ruffly blue skirt!

The pattern said "1 hour" but it def took me almost all day yesterday. Sad!I screwed up a lot and my seam ripper and I became very close.

And you see that? That's a button hole!!! It took 12 tries but I made a button hole! I'm a really visual learner and the directions were all written out. I was so confused! But everything turned out nicely. I wore it out and no one gave me a look that said "What in the world are you wearing?" :)

And now the reveal of my "secret" project! A secret project that was NOT my own idea, but the idea of Trey and Lucy. Button earrings! I LOVE them!! They are SO easy to make (I made three pairs in one minute!) and so versatile! I wanted mine to look like these earrings from Anthropologie. Mine cost about 5 cents to make, as apposed to $18 from Anthro? That's like getting them 99.998% off! Score!

I love them! You can find buttons to go with any outfit and customize you look for practically free. Go on a try it! I'll be trying out some more patterns. :)

Pocatello Adventure!

2010-05-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the hubs and I drove down to Pocatello, Idaho, which is the home of the nearest Costco. Pocatello is over an hour away. How sad is that? An hour and 15 minutes to the nearest Costco in the cold, wet, dark, cold, and cold rain. So much for sunny BBQs this Memorial Day weekend!

This was the first time I'd ever actually been to Pocatello, I've driven through a lot, but I've never actually stopped. I was a little bit disappointed, this city is almost twice the population of Idaho Falls (the "big" city near us) but there really wasn't much there! It was the smallest Costco I've ever been to and that mall was so pathetic I wanted to cry! I think the funnest (I'm petitioning for that to be a word) part of the trip was just exploring the city. Most of the interesting murals and store names were gone too fast for me to get a picture.

On the way back the hubs was nice enough to let me spend way too much time in Joanns. Anyone else take advantage of the 5 for $5 Simplicity patterns? I think having some new ones will help me get over my phobia becuse after all, the more choices you have, the more likely you are to succeed! (Oh, wait, I think that applies to dieting. I heard it during a Special K commercial.) My mom sent me some extra coupons so I walked outta the store only $20 poorer. I was very proud of myself.

I got the green polka dots to make the dress on the top right, I also figured that if I actually had the fabric to make something, I would do it! (Hey, I'm trying here!)

I also got these for a "secret" project that I will be conducting after I finish this post. What could I possibly be doing? Hmmmm.....

To top off the evening, we went to Olive Garden for a romantic dinner. (My mom also sent me a gift card, isn't she great?) See that onion dangling off his spoon? He kept it there the whole time he was eating his soup, insisting that it was "spoon decor." I love him. :D

What did you do this weekend?