Like a Chicken...

...with it's head cut off...

hmm perhaps that's a little dramatic, I've always had a flair for that ;). It must run in my genes or something. Anyways I have been a little crazy busy trying to get ready for Girls camp, going to the dentist (4 times in one month, going for a record!! Still got one more to go), photographing weddings, helping my grandparents remodel their house etc... So I have been absentee blogger.

Tomorrow I leave for GIRLS CAMP!! This is my 2nd year going as a Leader and I gotta say, going as a YW was not nearly as fun as it is going as a leader. Seriously. My least favorite part of camp was always the certification and as a leader, you don't have to do any of that stuff, yippppy!! I just get to hang out with awesome girls and eat awesome food and have an awesome time. This year is a little different since we aren't going to the same place we've been going to for years but I'm super excited still. we are staying on a fun island in cabins (and tents) and we get to hike up to see one of the top 5 water views in the United States!! Last year was a good experience but I am so much better prepared this year and know what to expect and what do to and stuff.

We have our activities planned and ready, badmittin, thread for bracelets, nail polish, volleyball, swimming etc...

we have our snacks ready. cuz who can go camping without snacks? I'm pretty sure that's WHY people go camping...just saying ;) Have you ever roasted starburst? If not, try it. It's pretty legit. Not sure why it's so good but it just is.

We have the girls' small gifts ready. This year I am taming it way down. I went a little overboard last year so I gotta be more realistic this year. So We are giving them sour apple suckers that have a little saying on them (that goes with one of our devotionals), a long piece of rope to make these bracelets together, then their 'big' gift this year is a necklace we made that has a starfish, a pear, and a heart on it. Our ward's theme is Pearl of Great Price and our animal is the starfish. The heart was supposed to be an anchor because the stake's theme is anchored in christ but nobody had anchor charms!! GRR. We are giving the necklace to them with a fun little story.

{A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

 

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

 

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

 

“Well, I made a difference to that one!”

 

The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved. - adapted from the Star Thrower by Loren C. Eiseley}

 

So hopefully everything will go well this week and we'll be able to enjoy each others' company and have a good/safe/fun time. I'm going to bring my big camera so I can take some good pictures (last year they were horrible from my P&S) then maybe I'll post them when I return. 

 

My aunt and uncle are returning from their 2 year mission to Russia on Thursday (!!!!) so I might actually leave camp a day early to meet them at the airport, but we'll see. 

 

Be jealous!! 

Crafting in my Bed?

Maybe that title sounds funny...hmm oh well. I'll explain myself in a few minutes.
First though I'll share a few random things that have been going on!

First we've had aprox. 4 days of sun this SUMMER. So when it's sunny, I try to spend the day in the great outdoors. Right now I want to turn the heater on in the house in the middle of JUNE. So ridic. This was the hottest day we've had so we went kayaking then we laid on anti gravity chairs and I read Harry Potter!

speaking of Harry Potter...This is a shirt I made with my friend Michelle Chapin yesterday. We got a Tshirt from Michaels for $2.50 and a bleach pen for $2.50. Then we picked out what designs we wanted (michelle did I <3 Batman ) I decided on HP because the movie comes out in 28 days, the day before my bday!! If you want to make a shirt too, just put a piece of cardboard between the shirt layers then you can outline in chalk your design, we didn't have chalk so we just used the internet to help us create stencils. 
Then you leave the bleach on for 15-20 minutes, until you reach your desired effect then wash it off in the sink then wash/dry it and it's done!!

This was a project one day that turned out pretty delicious...it used to be a can of sweet and condensed milk (hahaha I almost said soup- that would be a miracle!). TO make your very own can, lightly boil the can for 2 hours (take label off first). Then wait for it to cool, or you can make an ice bath to help it along. Once it's cool, open it and enjoy!! I liked it better the next day after it had been in the fridge all night. It stayed soft and super good. I dipped apples in it (and my finger?) You could pour it over popcorn or brownies or ice cream or...you get the idea.

So this is where the crafting in my bed title comes from. Last night I was a little pin crazy and came across this fun idea. I've been looking for something to put over my bed to break up this obnoxious yellow wall. Luckily I have a canvas store downstairs in my house and had my pick of about 30 different canvas sized ;). I wanted to be warm in my bed though so I made them in my bed at 11:30pm last night. Here's how I made them:
I got embroidery thread and wrapped it around the canvas randomly lots of times. Then tied it in the back to finish it off.
Next I took half a sheet of black felt and cut out leaf shapes in different sizes. Then tucked them randomly into the string. I didn't use any type of glue or adhesive so they are a little vulnerable. If I had had glue dots in my room I prolly would have used a glue dot on each. Or if I had had a box cutter I would have made little slits into each 'leaf' and strung them on the string..but I didn't. So I made due.

It's soooo not perfect but that's ok with me. I was actually going to paint something similar on my wall so it would look like birds on a powerline but never got around to it.

Ugh this yellow looks so bad in this picture. Also I don't really like it in real life either and if it wasn't such a huge hassle I'd repaint it....with a lighter gray then do a quarter-foil stencil in white. But that might be too much gray...:( Also ignore all my random things that don't match anything, they were just thrown up on top of my bed for lack of space.

And that's it, you too can craft in your bed if you feel so inclined. But please don't make the caramel in your bed, that would get messy. Also I don't recommend using a bleach pen in your bed either.

Tom

Meet my new friend/s 

I suppose they're not really friends yet because they're still on their way here but I have a feeling we WILL be good friends. I'm sure everyone has heard of this company called Toms. Their motto:

I'd say that's a pretty legit motto. In fact, I'm fairly certain that's why I bought them. I was looking for some comfy, light-weight shoes and I hope I found that in these.
This company is pretty cool and they aren't out to make a buck, they are here to make a difference. Too many companies are just too greedy and don't do good with all their wealth. I know people who barely get by and live month to month but they still donate what they can and volunteer in the community. Those are the types of people we need and this is the type of company we need more of.

Now in addition to shoes, they are now selling sunglasses and this is the deal behind them:

If you buy one pair of Toms glasses you provide site for one person, in whatever capacity they need it. Ummm hello? Genius. The glasses are a little more expensive but for what they provide I'd say they are a good investment. I can't wear regular sunglasses due to my far-sightedness but if I did, I'd prolly save up for a pair.

They have factories to make these products in Argentina, China and Ethiopia and this is what they say about them,
"We require that the factories operate under sound labor conditions, pay fair wages and follow local labor standards. A code of conduct is signed by all factories. Our production staff routinely visits these factories to make sure they are maintaining these working standards. We also have third parties audit the factories at least once a year to ensure they adhere to proper labor regulations."

Since 2006 when they started they have donated over 1,000,000 pairs of shoes and I'm sure that number is growing daily. This company was started by a guy who was on Amazing Race, while on the show he ended up in Argentina and afterward went back there on vacation, he noticed many kids didn't have shoes. He was wearing authentic style shoes that farmers had been wearing for a loooong time and he had the idea to start a company that donated a pair of shoes for every pair that was purchased.

Anyways you can google it if you want more info. I just thought it was a really cool idea and what a great way to help the world. If you buy a pair right now they have a $5 off coupon (google it) you can put towards your order. I'm excited to get mine!!

The 3rd Day

Hands are the subject for today's photo challenge. There are many types of pictures I could have taken, old hands, new baby hands, gloved hands, knitting hands, steering wheel hands etc....but I chose to take it literally and take pictures of my hands, as they are now, straight on, no fuss nothing special, just my hands.

I have to say I have small-ish hands compared to lots of people so maybe I'm a freak or something haha but I do like my hands. I don't think they are necessarily handsome hands (can hands be handsome?) but they are able hands. A few facts about my hands (try NOT to get too excited)

1. They are double jointed and can cause people to cringe in horror amazement. (Perhaps causing early on-set arthritis? Possibly)
2. My fingers are almost always capped with some sort of polish. Fingernail polish is kind of like the bowler hat but for fingers, not heads.
3. My ring finger requires a size 4 ring---meaning I get rings from the KIDS section...again freakishly small?
4. My other fingers are more accurately proportioned and I can get rings from the regular sections.
5. My  fingers tend to bend backwards not on purpose, that's just how they are.
6. I can knit, crochet, roll out dough, take pictures, high five, smack others myself in the forehead, pick things up, write, play the violin (poorly), sanitize and open pill bottles with these hands.
7. I like the fact that I can craft with these hands, it gives me something to do instead of fidget. I can change a ball of string into a hat or blanket whatever I want with these hands.
8. My hands/fingers are mostly always cold. I guess I have poor circulation.
9. I have weird pokey outy veins or tendons? on my hands that freak me out
10. I have a few scars on my hands and fingers from various endeavors such as going to a cutco knife demonstration and slicing my thumb with their TABLE knife. Another large scar is on my right pinky from who knows what.
11. I write with my left hand.
12. But I do most other things with my right hand. It's what happens when your family refuses to acknowledge the fact that your left handed and are in denial about it so they don't buy you left handed scissors as a kid, then make you switch hands to throw a baseball or bat or brush your teeth...(longest run-on ever?)

And last but not least, I just typed out this WHOLE pointless blog about my HANDS with my HANDS.
I am thankful for my hands and what they can do!!

I apologize if you really just read a whole blog about my hands, it wasn't intentional.

Day número UNO

Day one is a self portrait so this is my silly self portrait. I'm wearing Sam's 'awesome' sunglasses and waiting for Shelley to get off work.I'm prettttty gangster...hahaha OR NOT.

I probably won't post all my photos of my June photo challenge on the day they happen but perhaps thru the month I'll post a few here and there. This is also for my project 365 where I take a photo every day with Instagram. Killing 2 birds with 1 stone holllla!

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!!

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.

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!!

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!?

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.

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