I painted today!

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

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!

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!

source

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!

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

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....

....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...

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

Lost Sock Basket

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. :)