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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

30 Day Challenge!

I started this Project 365 on January 1st, so I take a photo every day using Instagram on my ipod. Well I've done pretty good and haven't missed any days but I'm having a hard time coming up with things to take photos of. I've decided since June has 30 days I'm going to do this challenge in conjunction with my Instagram 365. The only problem is June is the month of CAMP YIKES remind me to stop procrastinating and get that stuff finished up. So I might not follow this exactly towards the end of the month but that's ok I guess. As long as I take one photo a day I'll feel good about it.
Here is the 'program' if you are interested in following along. Maybe I'll post some of my photos on this blog but who knows, next month might be prettttty busy. I'm also going to be helping my grandparents redo their living room, kitchen, dining room and hallway.

ALSO Laura, you win the baby subway art hahaha!! if you want to email (of facebook) me your info you want on the baby sign that would be great. Congratulations!!

Saturday, May 28, 2011

25

My parents celebrated their 25th anniversary this last week. They weren't able to go away like they had wanted to so I came up with an idea to get them out of the house a little bit.

I wrote up 5 clues and some rules to send them on a wild goose chase 'scavenger' hunt. Then I decided that when they got back from their adventure, we would have a lovely dinner waiting for them.

You can be apart of the adventure now too!! (luckkkky ducks)
They had to take a photo of each destination and text it to me before opening the next clue so I could verify they were in the right place.
This was what we hid in their car, their clues and their "field books":


Clue #1
The blue lit aisles scream sales but deep down this place is more than 25% off specials, it's a corporation specializing in the business of looooove.

(They both worked at K-Mart and that's kind of how they met- even though they'd gone to the same church for years)
CHECK! They also had to bring back an object from each place so they brought home a bunch of random rocks haha.

Clue #2:
Where ghosts rattled doors and vacuums swept across floors, the place where you snored with your firstborn.
This funeral home on James street was my first home. My parents cared for the building...NOT the bodies as my dad would have you believe ;). My mom was afraid so she'd hang cans from the door so she'd hear if anyone came in. Weird random story, my aunt met her prom date there when she was a senior and they took pictures in caskets...CREEEPY

Clue #3:
This place didn't moo as expected by it's name but it sure provided lots of fun for at least one more kid to play.
This was our next house in Fairhaven (on Cowgale, hence the moo clue). We ran a group home with 3 DD adults when I was growing up and Ty was born when we lived here.

Clue #4:
Where the family was completed, this is where we stayed for many years when the days were lazy and the summers were hazy.
This was our next house in Ferndale. We lived here from when I was in 2nd grade until 8th grade. I loved this house. It had a huge yard that my dad built a lot of things in. We moved to be in the Meridian school district and to get out of that 'hood. I want to go through it again but they haven't moved so no open houses :(

Clue #5:
Where you now reside, hidden in the deep, follow the pathway home where you will find the treasure you seek!!
No photo of our house now, they didn't think it was necessary ;)

My clues are a little cheesy but whatev's it got them out of the house for about an hour, enough time to do this:

Make dinner which was mashed potatoes, veggies, salmon (salad not pictured). I also made little menus for our 25 Cafe.
We also cleaned the kitchen/living room areas while they were gone and set up their special table.
Complete with flame-less candles (we almost burned the house down when the salmon caught on fire so we decided to play it safe ;)) Cheesecake filling stuffed strawberries drizzled with chocolate and rolled in crushed graham crackers.
We had their anniversary gift which was a gift card to eat and a couple movie passes with roses.

Sam was the server and had on his church clothes and a fake mustache but didn't let me take a pic, jerk haha.

Other funny story. Everyone was gone this afternoon so after I got back from Costco, I started hulling out the strawberries to fill them with the cheesecake filling. Well half way through my dad pulled up so I grabbed everything off the counter and hid it behind my bed in my room (see above pic)... i finished filling them here then luckily Sam called to be picked up so I was able to cover them and sneak them to the fridge to await their chocolate drizzle.

So that's our day celebrating my parents 25 years of marriage. I also had them write down at least one memory from each location so we have a few stories of each place now.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

1,000th PIN! (and Giveaway!!)

It's true...I've been on Pinterest for, I dunno maybe 2 months and I've already hit 1,000 pins?! CRAZY. I'm fairly certain half of those were pinned the first 2 days I was on it, I had SO much stuff bookmarked. If you have yet to get on the pinterest bandwagon, lemme know and I'll hook you up. This picture illustrates what exactly my 1,000th pin was of....
It's directions on how to create your own bokeh, prettttty cool unless you don't know what that is then it means nothing to you. In short it's the fuzzy lights you see behind a subject in a photograph like this:
SO with the directions it shows you how to make shaped bokeh like hears and stars etc...
 This is a screen shot of my "home screen" in Pinterest. It shows all my boards which are separated by categories that I like. I have a wide range here are the boards I currently have working:
Buy me, grad party, I want to go to there (travel), Health, sewing, gifts, church, random funny, crocheting, quotes, paper crafting, kids, part-E, clothes & accessories, Do's (hair), cooking, knitting, make me (crafts), decorating, baking, I shoot people with canons (photography), around the house.
So see you can pin ANYTHING you are interested in!! I follow 12 people which means I see what they pin and then I have the ability to pin anything they pin that I like to my boards. I didn't realize it but like 28 people follow me which is pretty crazy. I know several of the people but there are strangers who follow me to, I wonder why anyone would care what I pin but I guess they do! (You also have the option to have private boards that you can block from strangers if you're concerned about that kind of thing).

So in honor of my 1,000th pin I thought I'd have a little giveaway!! If you are interested in winning one of these:






 


(an idea I got from Pinterest) A custom baby subway art inspired 8.5x11 (or smaller your choice) print go here, Pinterest (if you are not a member you will just see the front screen) and look at some of the sample pins and tell me what your very first pin would be!! Then if you'd like an invite leave your email in the comments and I'll send you an invite so you can get started pinning away! I will choose a winner next Tuesday. If you win you can email me all the info you would like on your subway art and I'll get it printed. I'll just choose a random entry (haha that's assuming I even get ONE entry ;)) Your chances should be pretty good ;). If you don't have any kids yourself it would make a cute gift!! I have a few I'm going to be printing off for friends who've just had babies recently.

Happy Pinning!!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Totes vs. Sac's

I have a dilemma. I have a really hard time spending money on myself...well for more expensive things that aren't TOTALLY necessary. I have been wanting to get a camera bag for myself for awhile now and I've had my eye on these:
Shootsac's by Jessica Claire. I love Jessica Claire's photography and her bags are so sleek and non-bulky. She also has some really cute covers...The bag itself is like $170 then you have to buy the cover which ranges in price from like $39-59. Of course my favorite cover is on the more expensive side. So do I go with the less bulky but more expensive bag or do I go with Jo's Totes:
Which are a lot cheaper, $89, but more bulky (it doesn't show it but it also has a cross body strap)? I have to admit, if it was just a purse, it is "tote-ally" my style. And it has a lot of room on the inside for extra lens', flash, cards, keys, wallet etc...so it would be like an all in one purse/camera bag (plus, the inside fabric is hounds-tooth my favorite). My other dilemma is, do I really NEED a camera bag? I don't have many lens' just two...and I basically only use one of them. So it would hold my flash and extra SD cards...so is a whole huge bag really necessary right now? I hope to expand in the future and buy more lens' so it would be something that would come in handy in the future...will this go out of style by the time I get around to buying more lens'? If I go with the other one, I can change the cover if it goes out of style...

I'm pretty busy with photos lately and I have a wedding coming up and would love to have an all-in-one purse/camera bag to carry around but I hate the feeling of being weighted down. But it would be super handy to have everything close to me. I could even bring my other camera with me just in case ya know, better to be prepared. UGH decisions decisions.

I had talked myself into getting a shoot sac but now I'm really not wanting to spend that much money so I might just go with the Jo's Totes...why is this so hard for me? In the long run it doesn't matter at all and it's just money and 'stuff' so who cares right? I just make things into a bigger deal than they are ;). Maybe I should just spend that money on a photo workshop with one of my favorite photographers like, Blue Lilly or Jessica Kettle. OH my heck. I think I'll go with Jo's Totes...ahhhh too bad they are out of stock of all the colors I like so who knows if I'd even get my bag by June when I need it!?

Friday, May 13, 2011

Magical

This might sound rather juvenile but I truly believe that places like Disneyland and Disneyworld are MAGICAL. Despite hating crowds and long lines, I LOVE these places. Now I am speaking prematurely, because I've never been to Dinseyworld but I imagine it's just as magical as Disneyland. Here's one reason why:
 Hello! Who wouldn't want to go there? Well yesterday was quite the exciting day at my house. My dad got a letter in the mail with two mickey mouse stickers on them, otherwise it was just a plain white envelope. My mom and I couldn't wait for him to get home so we ripped that sucker open and within 2 seconds we were jumping up and down and celebrating ;). The company my parents work for sends all their employees (and their families) who have been there for 20 + years to Disneyworld, all expenses paid for. In case you don't know what that means, they pay for flights, car service (limo?), rooms in one of the park resorts, entrance to all the parks, and food!!!!! My family has never taken a vacation quite that elaborate. We've never left the West Coast (except does Hawaii count? we did go there once). To be honest, we are just too cheap practical to spend that kind of money on a trip that lasts just a few days when there are so many other things to spend that money on. Not to sound cliche and whatnot but the memories are soooo great. I went to Disneyland when I was 1 yr old...I don't remember one minute of it but 2 years ago I went with my aunt and cousins to Dinsyland again and remember every minute of it, we had a BLAST. I always think back and smile. So I'm way excited for our family to take a fun trip and not have to worry about money! Only bummer is Ty is in Chile on his mission still so he can't go...BUT my mom will reach her 20 year mark in 2-3 years so he'll have another chance!
I have to say, my mind could barely process all this information so it took me 2 hours to realize exactly what going to Disneyworld meant...HARRY FREAKING POTTER LAND. Shut the front door! I seriously am so happy!! I have loved Harry Potter since the first book came out when I was like 10 no joke. I was just as excited when all the movies came out. Just hearing that music from the opening credits makes me smile like a friggin' dork.
This is the Three Broomsticks in the Village of Hogsmeade, where Harry and Co. hang out when they are allowed to leave Hogwarts. I GET TO GO HERE. Oh my heck. I might have an embolism or something. How geeky is it to be so excited for this?! Now this trip really WILL be magical with Harry Potter on the agenda! If I'm able to pull myself away from all the glory-ness that is Harry Potter we might do this:
heckkk yes. How fun would it be to swim with dolphins? TOTALLY fun. I like how I keep 'talking' in CAPS. that's how excited I am!!

obviously we'll be going to epcot. I'm so excited to see the different things they offer here. I'm not really sure what it involves but I think it's places from around the world. Anyways I'm excited.

Ok I still have a few months before going so I should stop daydreaming and get on with my day. I have some camp stuff to do for girls camp and I'm going to help a friend decorate a cake and several other items of business.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, May 7, 2011

What does a Zebra say?

I realized yesterday as I was picking a few things up in my room that I really like something. What I really like is zebra stripes...strange. Then I started going around and looking at everything I owned that had zebra stripes and I was rather ashamed impressed with my collection. I know you all are just dying to see so I took pictures! Lucky dogs
The first thing I noticed was my nails, which I had just painted (so please ignore the crappy white all over my fingers, I hadn't removed that part before the picture :)) Might be a little sassy but I enjoy it. Then I get embarrassed when I'm at the store and people ask me where I went to get them done or if they are nail stickers and I have to say I actually took the time to do them myself...that makes me embarrassed.




Next I saw my beloved Old Navy shoes in my closet. I wear them a lot, totally worth the money!





Since I was looking at my shoes, I saw these bad boys. My dad has a tradition of buying me Chuck Taylors for birthdays/christmas. He ordered these online and didn't realize they were actually fuzzy...hmm I did wear them once because he made me feel guilty but they are more of a collectors item...and shouldn't be worn too much...wouldn't want to wear down the soles...But they do have a place in my 14 pair collection.





Next I remembered the purse I got for Christmas a year or two ago (also from my dad haha) I think I might actually have two purses that are zebra print. I actually haven't used this one yet because I forgot I had it, it was on of the many purses I uncovered from my closet a few weeks ago.
Then of course, we have my lovely luggage. A lot of people don't like it, BUT I don't like it when I can't find my luggage in the carousal after an airplane ride..so HA jokes on you suckkkas standing there waiting for 20 minutes to sift through 60 other black/blue suitcases. I also have a matching laptop bag that I got with it cuz I'm cool like that.



Even my computer cannot escape Zebra feva!



Neither can my cellular device...




Or my ipod...


And you'd better believe if zebra stripes would match at all in my room, I would have a zebra rug or picture or something...but it doesn't so too bad for my room ;)


I don't discriminate either, I like all animals just some have better patterns than others, that's how I decide which animals to like...if they have to have a cool pattern or texture or be a cool color I can like them ie: Flamingos, giraffes, elephants, tigers, dalmatians...




What DOES a zebra say?

Friday, May 6, 2011

New Room!

I have gotten several requests to show pictures of my "new" room! A little background, I've been trying to redo my room for prolly 6 years and just got around to it last week. I decided I'd had enough waiting around so I went to the store, bought 2 gallons of paint (way too much BTdubs...) and got to work. First I had to clear out my room. I decided to do it right this time and went through EVERYTHING. 2 Saturday's ago I was sitting literally on a pile of junk stuff ;). I think I took out 4 bags of garbage- like old gross clothes, broken stuff, etc...- probably took out 8 bags of giveaway stuff, seriously. it was absolutely ridiculous! I didn't realize I was living on the border of hoarder-ville ;) I just said to myself, if I haven't used it (or seen it) in the last year I didn't need it. I did good. Now all that stuff is sorted and donated to a garage sale we are having for camp! 
About a month and a half ago I walked into Target, not really looking to buy anything other than a birthday gift and a bottle of water. Well I happened by the bedroom section and saw this comforter that just sccccreamed my name. I'd seen it before but walked away from it, I didn't need it. But this time I didn't walk away from it. I picked it up and carried it around the store, thinking to myself, I'd go put it back before checking out, because I don't NEED a new one... (maybe I just need to finally realize I always do that to myself and once I pick something up, that's the point of no return for me haha)

Well I bought it that night but kept the receipt because I WAS going to return it in a day or two...but it wouldn't hurt to unfold it and see how it looked on my bed right? The next day I went to the store and bought sheets to match...
OY. Then I decided it didn't go with my "denim blue" walls so I HAD to paint. It took a while to actually get my room done. But a week ago I kicked it into high gear and didn't leave my room for a few days. I did pretty much everything by myself, I did have some help putting together the bed for my own sanity. And there is still corner touch-up stuff to do, and a few other small things to get really organized but the bulk of the work is DONE.
Enough talking, here's the pictures!

I'm gonna need to get a new lamp, green doesn't really match :) Maybe I'll get some aqua spray paint and change it...I've seen so many samples of rooms that are yellow and gray with aqua accents. Or maybe I'll make it black?
another view of the room. I already had this cool bookcase but I like it against the gray A LOT better! Eventually the frames that are on the bookcase will get hung up or put on a shelf...?
My bed is pretty cool, although it was totally annoying to put together and HEAVY. It has cubes on the side of the headboard. The top isn't on the headboard yet because someone took the phillips and I can't find it but it will get done soon. Perfect place for my books, Kindle, remote, rice bag, knitting projects etc....
The whole reason I bought this bed was for the drawers on the bottom. There are FOUR huge drawers, I seriously have so much space now, it's wonderful. Now I just have to keep it that way and actually fold my laundry instead of pulling it out of the dryer when I need clothes :). The two drawers that are showing hold all my shirts, separated into piles- white, plain colored, tank tops, etc... the other drawer holds all my pants and PJ's separated into shorts, capris, pjs, jeans, yoga etc...it works.
On the other side I put all my purses and bags into one to get them out of the way and in the other I put a bunch of yarn also to get it out of the way. It makes it easy when I want to start a new project!! Now I just gotta get some matching pillow cases and finish up the last minute stuff. No pics of the closet because although I cleaned out all the cubbies, I want to finish emptying my dresser to get rid of it and rearrange in there a bit.

Phew that was a long post! Now I'm off to go see a movie!

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