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Checking In, Vol. III & Preserving his memory
Reading: The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow Still Reading! I've been so busy, I haven't had much time to read.
Enjoying: The MUCH cooler weather this week. Last week...106 degrees. This week.....in the eighties.
Watching: Go ahead and laugh, I like to watch Make It or Break It on ABC Family. Lauren drives me CRAZY!
Thinking about: All the awesome negatives of my father's I found this weekend and how I am going to get them scanned and printed. Need to find a medium format scanner.
Looking forward to: The students coming back next week, and photographing a friends little one this weekend.
Thankful for: My family, and specifically how happy my brother is right now.
Listening to: Seal and the Creative Live Wedding with Jasmine Star. My friend Laura got married in front of the world! Check it out.
The image below is of the negatives I found while organizing all of my scrapbooking stuff. Wow! Some of them are from the 50's. My Dad was so incredibly talented.
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DIY, Fabric Garland
First, I've got to give a shout out to my brother Matthew who is celebrating his birthday today! Happy Birthday! I love you and I am so proud of you and all that you have going for you right now.
A few weeks ago, I got a wild hair up my sleeve and decided to give homemade fabric garland a whirl for Jonathan & Greta's baby shower. They are having a little girl in September, and our office threw them a baby shower, which was so much fun and yummy I might add. We have a lot of great cooks in our office and I really need to get my hands on Patti's cream cheese french toast recipe. It was to die for. And I know today is Wednesday, and you are on the edge of your seat wanting a Whip It Up Wednesday, but we promise we will have one next week. Things around our house have been a little crazy. |
Aside from my creativity in my photography, I love branching out into other creative outlets such as sewing, knitting and scrapbooking. I have an entire room in my home dedicated to these crafts, but don't have a whole lot of time to work on them. I did however, stop the presses for this garland and it felt to good. I enjoyed it so much, and it was such a great stress reliever. I guess now if I am not editing, which I LOVE, I will be doing one of the above crafts/hobbies.
The garland was super easy to make, once you have all of our supplies and know how much you want to make. I originally got the idea from the Restoration Hardware Baby catalog. First, going into the fabric store is like going into a candy store. I literally get lost with all of the colors, patterns and ideas. And, I just have to say, that I am no seamstress. I can read a pattern and have made a few things, but you won't see my next design in Vogue. My neighbor aka Maxwell's Nona is a wonderful seamstress and makes the most beautiful aprons.
Here is a list of the supplies I used. Remember, if you don't want to make 12 yards of garland, then don't buy what I did. Trust me, we had a LOT! If you want to include three different color flags, then buy 1/2 a yard of each.
1 yard of pink cotton fabric
1 yard of green cotton fabric
(3) 3 yard packages of quilt binding. I used 7/8, but you can use narrower, if you want a different look.
Pinking Shears (I use these instead of regular scissors because I wanted a more classy look, and so the fabric wouldn't fray)
Iron
Spray Starch
Straight Pins
Sewing Machine |
| I pre-wash all of my fabric and press it out before I cut it. I then cut out the triangles to measure 6 inches wide and 9 inches in height. I actually cut a piece of cardboard and used it as a template to make the process go a little smoother. |
| Once I had the triangles cut out, I started to pin them inside the quilt binding. *Note, place the pins closer to the edge so the sewing machine needle doesn't hit them. |
| We don't have a big fancy sewing machine like Susan my neighbor does. This one was actually David's grandmother's and it is still going strong. |
Once I was done sewing all of the pieces, I starched the garland to prevent the wrinkles.
The finished product out in the back yard. You can use the garland as a permanent decoration in a kids bedroom, or for a party like we did. Another idea is to get iron on letters and place a child's name on the garland. |
Checking In, Vol. II
Reading: The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow and What to Expect Before You are Expecting by Heidi Murkoff. Because you have to do all of your homework first. Enough said.
Enjoying: Time at home with my husband.
Watching: The Army Wives and Drop Dead Diva (my Sunday night favorites)
Thinking about: How jam packed this week is already and it has just started, and finalizing my new promo video.
Looking forward to: Going through the rest of Austin's pictures from Saturday and meeting Sasha on Wednesday.
Thankful for: Great health insurance and a new album company that will go to the ends of the earth to make things perfect.
Listening to: Lady GaGa, The Fame and Train, Save Me, San Francisco (hasn't changed since last time, these are my two most favorite albums right now)
Because all blog posts are better with an image attached, here is a sneak peek of Austin from his Senior Portrait Session on Saturday. |
A Charm Addiction
I didn't grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth, and quite honestly, there were times that we barely had enough money to buy food. Times were tough during parts of my childhood, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. You know why? Because it made me a stronger person, and I have a lot more respect for the families who are trying to make ends meet on maybe one paycheck, food stamps or the WIC program, because we made it eventually and so will they. I had titled this blog post "A Charmed Life", not to tell you about some of the tough times we had growing up, but to share my silly addiction to charms.
If we have met in person, you may have already gathered that I am addicted to Brighton. All things Brighton! Handbags, shoes, jewelry and their charms! No really! Even my branding was somewhat modeled after my favorite addiction in the universe! I have close to 75 charms and one Arizona charm bracelet. But I didn't buy them all one my own, I promise! The charm bracelet in the image below was given to me by my sweet friend Jennie. She is the one who originally shared Brighton with me. Do I blame her? No, because this is my addiction! I have though, refrained from going into a Brighton store since June 24th when I was in Scottsdale, so it has been a month, which is a record! You are probably thinking I am loaded by buying all that Brighton stuff! Nope, it's called gift cards from very generous friends, and a husband who sometimes supports this addiction.
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Here's some charm bracelet trivia for you: You can only purchase the state charm bracelets in the store the state is in. For example, that super fun Arizona bracelet can only be purchased in Arizona. I would love to collect some other state bracelets, so if you happen to jaunt past one of my favorite stores in another state, let me know! The one I REALLY want to have one day is Washington D.C. My friend Patti has it and it is so beautiful. Oh, and Hawaii and Colorado.
To top things off, I received an email on Monday night from Brighton about their "It's All About Charms" event. If you go into their store and build your own charm bracelet, it could be entered into a contest to win some prizes. I don't think I can make it! |
Checking In, Vol. I
During graduate school, I was part of an awesome group of seven ladies, and we called ourselves the Super Sexy Seven. And it was during those three strenuous and crazy years that we would often send emails or post on our blog about what was going on right then and there and then lend some words of support. Victoria coined it as "Checking In". Today, I was reflecting back on an old personal blog that I had during graduate school and enjoyed reading some of the old "Checking In" posts. I've decided to bring that little tradition over to this blog so you can get a glimpse of what is going on in my life.
Reading: The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and Friendship by Jeffrey Zaslow and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon *Jennie will probably kill me for starting another book while I should be reading Outlander, but I saw the first book at Barnes & Noble the other day and just had to download it onto my iPad.
Enjoying: The cooler weather this summer. We have only had a few days reach 100.
Watching: The Bachelorette (later this evening)
Thinking about: How great our new washer and dryer is, some of the housework that needs to get done, how sore my legs are from an intense workout on Saturday, and what else to include in my August Newsletter.
Looking forward to: getting my hair done on Tuesday night. Alicia is going to "switch" up the color a bit.
Thankful for: my health.
Listening to: Lady GaGa, The Fame and Train, Save Me, San Francisco |
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