How to Make Books

I ordered this brilliant book last week and I received it over the weekend. I highly recommend it! It is a lovely book in and of itself; and the writing, illustrations, and instructions are clever and fabulous. I've been making books since college, but none like this. I am going to make everything in this book quite a few times I believe. I love it love it love it!
I just made this darling little Christmas book in about 5 minutes. True love is a hand made book.

E is for . . .

Whoever you are who put this wonderful vowel on my porch, name yourself immediately so that I can kiss you on the LIPS!!! How cool are you!? Thank you so much, we totally love, it! So, now, E is for my first name, my husbands last name, and . . . . . . Edward! he he he

Give Thanks . . . For Edward

It's just a little bit embarrassing, this fascination that I have with Vampire stories. I really get a little bit sheepish about the sheer number of times I've read the books. None-the-less, here I am shamelessly posting on the world wide web about the funnest evening I've spent in a while. This amazingly over-ambitious chick in my neighborhood put together the BEST movie experience ever. She bought out a theater for a midnight showing of Twilight on the release date. She then proceeded to make a map of the theater, assign seats (so that everyone could conveniently show up 5 minutes before show time and not have to worry about sitting on the front row), number each row, seat, and ticket by HAND, and not stop there. She had treats in every seat, and super fun give-aways, and seriously, the whole night was just a blast! Ang, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! It was so fun. Before midnight, we went to a Twilight tailgate party, where we got to be photographed with none other than Mr. Edward himself, and eat yummy yummy treats. It was so much fun to be surrounded by my favorite people, and just play like a teenager again. Thank you again to everyone who made it such a super fun night.

Tag 2

My first nameMy Middle NameMy Last NameMy AgeMy Favorite Food


My Favorite Thing That I Own
I Suppose I Don't Actually OWN My Girls, So Let's Try ThisMy Favorite ColorMy Favorite AnimalMy Favorite StoreMy Best FriendCelebrity CrushMy First Job
Bad Habit
My College DegreeAndWhere I've Been RecentlyWhere I'm Hoping To Go SoonWhere I Was BornWhat I'm Doing Right NowTag; Lynette, Megan, Cori, Debra

Little Baby L

Such a cute little baby. I love this family.

Faerie

I got to tend this darling little girl for an hour, and I full blown stole her away to my parents back yard to take these pictures. She is so cute is she not? I could just snack her down!

Peacock

I am so excited for how this costume turned out. I think it is so stinking cute!! I made the whole thing for under $20. This is the costume I was copying, but of course I had to add pink, sparkles, and a few more accessories.

mini carmel apples

Aren't these the cutest ever?? My friend found this cutest idea (link here) and brought over a plate of them. They were so good!!!! and she said they were pretty easy to make. I love good ideas!

silhouette

I love this silhouette of my cute little pie.

fall photos

I was taking my kids fall photos, and met up with my good friend with her little girls. Aren't they so cute?! I love the train tracks, I love the fall clothes, and I love the polka dots. fabulous.

My dog and the Pink Bike

So, I put Ruby in the basket of my bike and rode to my moms. It was so fun! I love the bike, I love the basket, my dog is so cute, life is good. I then came home and proceeded to give my dog a not-so-cute hair cut. My ambitions of having a show dog are waning. The Studio on the other hand is fabulous.

mmm.

I am full blown plagiarizing this whole post. It is sooooooooo cheesy, seriously, it's too much. I LOVE it though!!! Angie F this is for you since all of my other friends are questioning my mental stability for being so obsessed with these books. And now I have reason to believe that you may be even more than me. And because I listened to this song on your blog about a bazillion times.

victoria robbins bags

I just bought the best bags!! I got them here.
I got one for my daughter to use as a dance bag, and one for my friend's birthday, and I'm going to get one for myself as well. They are super cute, and so affordable, and they hold so much stuff. I could pack for a weekend in one. I can't figure out how to put a picture online, but I'll figure it out. Anyway, Christmas is coming, and these are fabulous bags at a great price.

I can breath again!

I am so happy to say that for the first time since our remodel started in February of this year, my house is clean!!!! I could cry. For the past 8 months, I feel like I've been living in total chaos, and now, every room is clean. I completely filled my trash can from empty, to so full, the lid won't properly close. I love it! I know it won't last, but I have pre-warned my family "mom is now a NEAT FREAK, and I will go ballistic on you if you don't tidy up after yourselves!!" They weren't nervous at all. At least for tonight though, it's so clean, and I am so happy.

The Girl with the Pink . . . Bike!! Yippeee

My cute and diligent boy got me the ring. Unfortunately, it doesn't really look like the online picture. It looks more like something that came out of oriental trading company. So, I got this instead!! Isn't it cute??


I ordered it online, I should have it by the end of the week and I'm so super excited. Of course I got the white accessory basket to hook to the front. I think I'm going to start doing my grocery shopping on my bike, with Ruby in the basket, and maybe a bonnet on, or a frilly dress, or something. Thank you boy!

The Girl with the Pearl... Ring

I saw this ring on a blog that i love, and man, isn't it beautiful? Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a jewelry girl, at all, but this ring is so simple, and so pretty, i just love it. And, it's so affordable. I think my husband should look into this ring in a 6.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I'm not complaining at all, but my life is so super busy right now. My boy is out of town, over the weekend we had lots of family in town, and 13 of the nieces and nephews had a sleep-over at my house. I'm still neck deep finishing the basement, and man I'M TIRED!!! So I'm a primary teacher at church, and Sunday during sharing time, I conked right out!! On the front row no less. I was seriously out cold. The primary president that was giving the lesson is also my VT partner, and I don't think she's too impressed with me anyway. So there I am snoozing away for who knows how long, and my cell phone starts ringing! I bring it as a clock, because seriously no one is going to call during church! Well, my boy actually would call me from France, during church! So, I woke with a start, fell out of my chair trying to figure out where my phone was, where I was, and on and on. It was humiliating, just humiliating.

Sweet Sweet Baby

Survivor

I have debated over posting these photos, because I'm such a BABE in them, but there you go. It was yard day, and I honestly did not think I would be photographed, so I didn't bother taking my hair out of ponies. So, I'm a huge Survivor fan, and the winner from Survivor China just happens to live here in my thriving metropolis. So, he invited four of the other survivors from Survivor China, to come to our city for "Corporate Survivor". All of these people in my city signed up, got put on tribes, and had competitions, and in the end someone was crowned soul survivor. So, being the huge nerd that I am, I went to the first challenge. I was totally thinking I'd have to park a mile away, hike in, show up an hour early and on and on. Not so, it turns out that I'm one of the only survivor fans here, because when I got there, no one else was there. The 5 Survivors were sitting there, by themselves, no one bugging them, nothing. I was so star struck, all I could do was stare. This is seriously killing what little bit of pride I have to admit this, but I was dying. I didn't dare go talk to them, and my girls wouldn't go with me even though I begged, bribed, anything. So, after a lot of staring, (and I'm sure they were creeped out because I was just staring with my massive, goofy grin), we went home. Well, my fabulous neighbor offered to go play paparazzi for me if we went back, and she would talk to them with me. So, we went back, and got to talk to my personal favorite of them all, Courtney, for like 10 minutes. It was so fun to ask all of my "I've always wondered" questions. It was such a fun experience, and as you can tell by my gargantuan cheeser, I was a little bit more than just a bit excited. I loved it.

mom and baby

There is nothing more beautiful than a woman with her baby. My good friend let me take these photos of her, and her little. It was a wind fest, but so worth it. They're fabulous.

canyon

3 weeks to go

I got to take my cute friend's maternity pictures. She is so beautiful, and seriously no one should look that cute 9 months pregnant! These are the first photos I've taken with my camera that are for someone else, and I was a bit nervous about it. But, when all is said and done, I love my camera.

Swan Lake, Chinese Style

Watch this all of the way through if you can. It's rather long, but OH MY HEAVENS!!!! It is amazing!!!

my favorite things

I love making things. I would rather make anything than buy it, just to learn how to do it. Here are my favorite things that I've been making as of late.






These two bags, Bird Crowned with Glory, and the Cupcake bag, I made for a church auction. I have made hundreds of bags over the past few years, but I must say that these are two of my favorites










At a church function around Christmas time, a fabulous woman in my ward was wearing this super-girly apron, and I fell in love with it. She let me bring it home, where I made a pattern, and whipped up a ton of them. You can see the originals at funktionhome.com, they're spectacular.













The first time I saw these hair flowers on a child, I laughed my head off. Now, I don't think they could be cuter, and they are so easy to make. We pretty much have one in every color for every occasion. My good friend has a thriving business selling these in Denver, and they go like hot-cakes. I can't get enough of them.





Last, but not least, I have a fetish with yummy drinks. So, here is the recipe for my personal favorite summer time slush.
in a blender, combine:
2 cups of ice
1 cup of milk
1/2 cup of hot chocolate mix ( the kind you mix with hot water)
1T Pero (or some other version of Mormon "coffee")
blend it all up until it's thick and slushy.

MMMMMmmmmmmmmm!!!!!

mid-life crisis

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about the fact that we were both probably not going to have any more children. She mentioned something about being in a mid-life crisis. I never thought that would happen to me, but as she said those words, I realized, that's exactly what's happening to me. I am in this weird phase of my life. I never wanted to be here, I don't want to be here now, yet I am. My kids keep getting older, and fight as I will, they are all going to be in school darn soon! I have spent some amount of time worrying about this since my oldest was born, and now, it's come much sooner than I would have had it. I am so excited about new prospects, but I'm terrified of the unknown. I have loved having tiny kids around me so very much, that I don't believe I can be happy without it. I always thought that I would have a whole bunch of kids, and that by the time the youngest were in school, I would be ready to move on and do my own thing. But when that didn't happen, I am now entering into this all too quickly. I do love that I'm getting tossed out of my comfort zone, because I know I will grow so much. I feel like I felt when I got on a plane to Paraguay to serve a mission for my church. I've never been so afraid, however, that certainly was, by far and large the coolest thing I've ever done in my life (next to marriage and kids of course.) So, this next phase of life too, will be huge, and wonderful I guess, if I can get my emotions together enough to handle it.

silhouettes

We went to this cave sort of thing, and when the girls were going out of it, I caught these great silhouettes. These were two of the best.

Easter in Moab

I had so much fun taking pictures this weekend. The light was amazing and the color bouncing off of the red rocks and red sand did such fun things to skin tones. The part that I loved the most, was the sheer enormity of the cliffs and rocks, and my tiny pink things at the bottom. We are so small in this big world, and sometimes, I catch myself feeling bigger than I am. It was nice to be humbled by nature, and remember my place in it.