Graham I Am

Shakedown!

2011-12-13T20:56:00.000-08:00

I recently read in one of my favorite blogs, a term for what I go through every day! "The Shakedown!" It is a phrase that is synonymous with that mad rush at the end of the day to ready the house/yourself for when the husband comes home! I'm glad it's not only me who experiences this phenomenon. It seemed to be some innate part of me that kick-started once I got married.

Is it that time already?!? I gotta go! The hubs will be home in a half hour and the house looks like a disaster zone! And I don't even have any kids yet, so it's ALL ME!

I run around like a mad woman straightening, scrubbing and generally doing everything I should have all day, so that he will never ever suspect that the house looks anything other than spotless. In my defense, I have to run my business at home, so his work time is my work time, but I still feel that it is my duty as a woman to do it all!

Luckily, more often than not, I CAN do it all! I know this won't last once we have babies, but for now, I am really enjoying a spotless house (most days), photography stuff done (now that the Fall rush is over), and dinner a-cookin' when he walks in the door.

I'm just trying to put off the day when he realizes I'm not perfect. That'll be some shock! :)

First

2011-10-17T18:23:00.000-07:00

The first thing I am going to do when we're fully moved into our new place is wash all of our dishes. Because we will FINALLY have a dishwasher! It hasn't been terrible not having one, but it will definitely be so much easier with one. I am very excited! We are still a lonnnng way off from having a dream kitchen or even a dream home, but this is one tiny step forward!

source

Photography!

2011-10-16T08:11:00.001-07:00

I also wanted to write about this crazy month I've been having! Many of you know how I started my own photography business a few months ago. I recently revamped the site, so check it out! (My brother, Mathieu, has been a HUGE help to me in the coding process and I have learned a ton from the interwebs too!) Well October is a big month for photography because everyone wants Fall pictures for upcoming Christmas cards. One family I shot a few months ago has referred about 5 other families to me, who in turn have referred even more. And my friend Lisa who is a fellow photographer was on maternity leave for a month and sent a few people to me who she couldn't shoot and also once her October schedule filled up, she sent the excess to me! SO grateful to her! My October has been so crazy and fun and busy! Last weekend alone I had 6 photo shoots, which isn't a lot to some, but for me only a few months into this, it was a pretty big deal. Editing takes a pretty long time and I am learning so much every day, and I absolutely LOVE doing this. It is awesome! Here are some recent pictures:

Moving

2011-10-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

Jesse and I are moving to Fairport in a few weeks and we are so excited!! The whole time we've lived in this apartment, we haven't liked it. Our landlord is very particular about some things and it makes it hard to feel relaxed here, especially since he lives above us. We've talked about moving for a long time and kind of looked at some places on the side, but never very actively.

We recently were looking at a few houses and one of Jesse's co-workers saw a link to a house I had sent him on Jesse's screen at work and started telling him about their condo they'd been trying to sell since March. It sounded pretty great, and the pictures looked decent so we went and saw it and both knew as soon as we got there that we wanted it. They didn't want to renew their listing through the winter because they were having a hard time selling it and were looking for some income, so they're renting it to us month-to-month, which is perfect since we've been talking about starting the process of buying a house sometime in the next year.

A good friend of mine from my stake growing up just moved from Buffalo to Fairport and would be only a few minutes away, and some friends of Jesse's just moved to Fairport a few weeks ago as well. Perfect. We're going to be in the same stake as my family and in the same ward with my friend (Sheila and Rob Fleming), which is really great for us. It's still very close to Jesse's work and closer to my parent's house where I end up throughout the week teaching art classes and doing a few photo shoots.

It's pretty great that it kind of fell into our laps and works out awesome for us. It's only a 1 Bedroom like we're in now, but it is muuch bigger. I'll have room to set up my studio in the living room when I have a photo session and since it's in a complex, we'll have parking for both of us! I HATED parking around here. Since Jesse left the house more scheduled and frequently than I did, I was the one who parked on the street, and I dreaded going anywhere that would bring me home any time after 5 because I knew it would be so hard finding a spot anywhere near my house.

Since we got a new tenant to take over our lease here, and prepped for signing the lease over there, it seems like a lot is falling apart in this apartment. Literally 2 days after the new tenant signed a lease, our we had 2 major plumbing issues resulting in the basement flooding with around 3 inches of water. We were able to get our stuff out before it got wet, but now everything we had stored it sitting in our kitchen bedroom and living room in an already small apartment. Because of the flooding, our washer and dryer were broken for about a week, which was pretty frustrating to deal with too. Needless to say, we are so ready to move and are just itching to get out of here. We hope to get the keys this weekend and start moving some of our stuff to the storage unit in the basement of the building in Fairport. It's so close!!

The new place has its own challenges, like barely any cabinets to store things in the kitchen, and almost no counter space or shelving but we'll figure out ways to work around it. I'm thinking of turning the front closet (coat closet) into a pantry since it's right next to the kitchen, and adding some shelving in the living room or making/purchasing a freestanding book shelf. They're letting us paint so I am getting pretty excited to get rid of that weird mauve color in the bedroom, too bright blue in the bathroom and the very bright yellow in the kitchen/living area. I'll be posting all the projects and the progress on here!

I know it doesn't look like much, but it's a big step up from where we are now and these are just the listing pictures anyways. I'll try to put up some of my own soon!

Star Wars!

2011-08-30T15:57:00.000-07:00

Recently while my parents were driving the twin siblings out to college in Utah, my sister-in-law and I decided to revamp the downstairs bedroom that has been half-painted for almost 5 years! We painted it a nice asparagus green with stripes of high gloss in the same color. It's subtle and I love it. I put a few star wars pictures up because my nephew, Logan, loves the movies.

I had also seen these awesome star wars paintings. So I decided to replicate them for Logan's room. I took some dollar store canvases that I had lying around and did my best to paint them realistically. I am excited to put them up in his room! I think they're pretty fun!

Do you have this problem?

2011-08-09T22:25:00.000-07:00

It seems that whenever I purchase dresses and sometimes skirts, they always fall (without fail) about 4 inches above my knee! I'm not especially tall, so it's a huge annoyance! I feel like I'm bearing everything (and no one wants that!) and I am so self-conscious about it, to the point that I just don't wear those outfits, and sometimes don't buy a dress because I know I'll never end up wearing it! Frustrating!!

I had seen on this blog an article about how you could purchase a ruffled slip to lengthen and also combat sheer dresses/skirts. And those slips look adorable, but I didn't want to have to buy one and hope it fit. I figured there had to be an easier way!

So here's how I did it (with my darling sister).

1. Buy a cheap t-shirt a few sizes up from your normal or steal one from your husbands side of the closet (don't tell Jesse!).

2. Cut off the sleeves and across the top just below the collar (so after it looks like the second picture).

3. Pull it on like a skirt and hold the sides and measure how long you want it to be (so you can fold down the top to the desired length taking into account the length of the exposed lace).

4. Add elastic around the waist and hem.

5. Stitch up the open sides. (and make sure you do this on the inside).

6. Add lace all around the bottom sticking out from the hem. We did some with 2 layers and some with 3. You could also do ruffles with the same fabric from a second t-shirt. We did a slip with that too and it was adorbs.

7. Put it on under a short skirt or dress, or you could even wear it as a regular skirt if everything stitched up nice! I thought they were definitely cute enough to be regular skirts!

There you go!

It peeks out just enough to be super cute and add length to make it a little more modest and comfortable! It also helps with the bending over so you're not showing off too much, since it tends to fall more straight off the hips instead of like an a-line skirt.

It looks like this after:

source

It's helpful to make a few different colors to work with several outfits. We made black, white and grey! Super easy, cheap and very comfortable!

It's been awhile...

2011-08-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

I haven't gotten on here in awhile, and my apologies to my ~~many loyal fans~~ readers. I have been very busy starting my own business! I had been trying to figure out what to do with myself since I quit my last job, and started learning even more about my camera/photography. I finally decided to bite the bullet and try to create some sort of professionalism with my beginner skills, after much encouragement and support from my amazing husband and family.

It was not easy (and still isn't) but I am having fun, learning a TON and trying to keep my head above water. Many thanks to the various websites I frequent across the interwebs and to a few good friends who's talents far surpass mine.

Namely:
The CoffeeShop Blog
MCP Actions
(both of these websites offer shortcuts for Adobe Photoshop and many many tips and tricks which have come in handy! And so much inspiration! I hope I can be half as talented as the creators and submitters to these sites one day!)

Britanie Myers (Kentucky Photographer) -Britanie was a friend at BYU who has turned into an AMAZING photographer. I love her work and I am always asking for tips from her! I wish we lived closer together so we could bounce ideas off of each other!

Lisa Christensen (Rochester, NY Photographer) -She is a BYU friend to my brother's family and shot our gorgeous bridals and groomals a few weeks before the wedding. She has been kind enough to chat with me a few times about photography and let me shadow her on photo shoots. She is very very talented and I am so glad I was able to get pictures done with her and I ams so grateful for her never-ending advice!

I am continually amazed by the talent that I see all over the world and I am so inspired by everything I see on the internet! (Pinterest, what what!!) I am loving everything I have been able to accomplish so far in my small business and I love being able to see the happiness I can give to others when I am able to create something beautiful.

So, even if you're only there for a few minutes, I would be so humbled if you'd check out my website! I will say with pride that I had to learn HTML, CSS and some Javascript and I wrote the website (with a little help from the hubs) by myself from scratch. No templates or anything. It took hours and hours and hours of youtube videos, and books and many mistakes, but it's exactly how I wanted it- minimalistic, clean, and the pictures are the main focus. Enjoy!

PS- If you're in the area, I am currently running a 50% discount on prices as I build my portfolio! Can't beat that!
If you're interested, contact me here:
elizabeth@elizabethamberphotography.com
585.568.7024

Logan's Bday Party

2011-07-03T14:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry I forgot to post about Logan's party last weekend in the hubbub from this week. Here's some pictures:

Blogger...

2011-07-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

Apparently blogger got rid of all of my photos before the most recent post. I'm trying to figure that out, and apologize! This is even more incentive to get the site up!

Also, I was able to visit my cousin, Mariana, in the hospital the day she had her gorgeous new baby, Mackenzie. Here's some shots from that day:

Logan is Four!

2011-07-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

I had the best time hanging out with Sarah, Madison, Logan and Kaylee the other day. We spend some time at the Strong Museum of Play again, which is awesome and so much fun! Then we hung out with Donatello, my turtle. The kids love him, and I later found a kiss smudge on his tank, haha. We got to take some fun pictures and Logan got to fish in the Genesee River with his new fishing pole. It was awesome! Here's the evidence:

The rest of the end of the week has been spent editing pictures (which I love doing), and learning CSS/HTML to build my website. I'm trying to get it up and running as soon as I can, and I am so excited about that! And I am trying to get in as many photog sessions as I can before my site is up so that I have a nice big portfolio on there. So if you want a session or know someone who does, my prices are discounted right now as I learn and build my portfolio!!

Sadly, Jesse has been sick for a few days, so I've been tending to him. And because he's sick, we weren't able to go to Pt. Marion this weekend to visit his grandma. We're trying to figure out another time to go, because I have yet to meet her. But the up side, I guess, is that now we get to be here for my the Homecoming party for my Aunt and Uncle from the Congo where they were serving as mission presidents for our church. We're happy and excited to see them! And we also get to be here with family for the Fourth. :)

Guitar

2011-06-29T01:06:00.000-07:00

Once Upon A Time...

When I was attending BYU, and painting whenever I could, I made a guitar painting for my good friend, (and now husband) Jesse. At the time, I thought it was awesome, or at least was happy with it. Now, I realize it was not my best effort and although there are 2 more paintings that go with it (piano and drums), I don't love having them up around the house.

Today while I was messing with my new lens (50mm, I am in LOVE), I started taking pictures of one of Jesse's guitar. I liked how they came out, and decided that maybe if I can take good enough pictures of his prized instruments, he can let me take down those (in hindsight) not-so-amazing paintings.

Well, I think it's a good idea anyway.

Homemade LaraBars

2011-06-27T21:41:00.000-07:00

I recently found a simple and very yummy recipe for homemade LaraBars. They are a great snack to have around, and contain minimal ingredients and are pretty good for you! I decided to make them today. Here's the recipe I was kind of following:

Peanut Butter LaraBars

1/2 C. chopped medjool dates

1/2 C. roasted peanuts

1/8 teaspoon salt

You can put these into molds for kids (like a silicone ice mold), or wrap them in wax paper in bar form.

Put into the food processor for 1 or 2 minutes, or until the raisins are cut up and the mixture sticks together.

These are seriously so good. There are so many recipes on the internet if you just google it. I used raisins in mine instead of dates. You can use different nuts and different dried fruits to adjust to your liking. You can add other ingredients too, like chocolate powder, oatmeal, and various seasonings. Here are a few good recipes.

Normal LaraBars cost about 2.50$ per bar! Pricey! These are not very expensive and are great for people who are doing diets or have allergies. (Dairy free, Kate!) Even my husband liked them!

Baby Hats

2011-06-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

I made these hats today for some upcoming newborn photo sessions, and to start my collection of photographer props.

These pictures were also taken with my new 50mm lens. I am in LOVE with it! :)

Ever have those days...

2011-06-27T14:56:00.000-07:00

Where you are just OVERWHELMED with love for everyone and every single thing? I am having one of those days today. Appreciative and full of love for everyone. Especially my family.

(sorry sav, the only good pic i had of you was from graduation.... photo shoot when you come into town?)

I miss my sis savs like crazy and get so sad when I think of how far away we are. And soon my little twin siblings will be far away with her. Maybe I've already cried about it a few times...

And today I am soooo happy and feeling so much love for my husband. He makes me laugh every single day and we are awesome together. I LOVE being married and getting to snuggle and be adventurous with this guy. Best decision I ever made, and don't you forget it. :)

Kidlets

2011-06-22T21:38:00.000-07:00

Little Kaylee watching the children swim.

I have the great opportunity to learn more about photography from Lisa Christiansen, who shot our Bridals/Groomals. She is awesome. I was able to observe a session with her today and though I didn't get the chance to get many shots, here's a cute one I did get that I liked. :)

Little One

2011-06-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

Mariana's Maternity Session

2011-06-22T20:29:00.000-07:00

My Favorite!

2011-06-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

This one is definitely my favorite so far in the editing process. They are so cute together, and this was like the easiest shoot ever, because they were so naturally and comfortable with each other! I did not mind shooting for 4 hours (waiting to get the perfect sunset shot, haha).

Amy Clark's Engagements

2011-06-10T15:19:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to take engagements for a friend of mine (Jenni Schaefer's little sis!), and really enjoyed shooting with this cute couple. Here are a few of the shots we got. :)

Summer List

2011-06-08T15:20:00.001-07:00

We have a lot of things we wanna do this summer. This is a bunch of the things we plan on enjoying (and an old picture of my nephew, Logan). Jess and I are both big fans of the summer weather, and we usually get out to play frisbee as much as we can! Other than that, we are very excited to spend time with friends and do other activities to enjoy the nice weather!

Here's cute Kaylee Faye! I was messing around in Photoshop today getting ready for an engagement session I have tomorrow for a cute couple. I'm very excited!

Piece for a friend...

2011-06-05T12:36:00.000-07:00

After posting about the "Madison" piece I made, I received a few requests to

open an etsy shop. So if anyone else wants one, go ahead and order, or you can always message

me or call me! I'll be working on more and adding them to the shop and posting them

here so you can see more options. Here's the most recent one,

created for a friend for his Chinese girlfriend. :)

Oh, Lately It's So Quiet...

2011-06-02T00:28:00.000-07:00

I recently saw an amazing artist online named Peter Crawley who works with thread and paper. I had some time on my hands while Mr. was away on a fishing trip and was just messing around seeing if I could do what he does. Credit goes to him for inspiration. I replicated one of his circle pieces to a much smaller and very inferior degree:

Then I created a piece for my sister based using his work as inspiration.

Here's an up-close look at it in progress:

I used the negative space to spell out her name. Just a gift for her because she is adorbs and the best!

Kaylee Faye

2011-05-29T13:46:00.001-07:00

Decor

2011-05-16T23:35:00.000-07:00

Took these down because they kept falling, and put up the empty frames. Not sure if I like it...

my momma

2011-05-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

My mom is AWESOME. She birthed 9 kids, including a set of twins, which in and of itself is a huge feat. She looks amazing and bikes everywhere and is very active and hardworking. She is an amazing cook, teacher, quilter, sewer, decorator, organizer, listening ear, advice-giver, joker, gardner, grandkid spoiler, and SO much more. She is the best at encouraging all of us kids to do what we want in life and to strive to reach our goals. She has seen the good in all of us and pushed us to do better and work harder. She is an amazing example to me of mothering, and so far we've all turned out pretty good. :)

For her special day, I wanted to complete a project she started a few years ago. She wanted a photo wall in our family room and had 2 photos up for the longest time, and never got around to finishing it. I've wanted to help her finish it for awhile now, most especially because I have pretty good shots of nearly everyone in the family from my own photo shoots. I decided to do it only a week ago and it took a lot of help from my siblings and family friends to round up great images so that I could make this wall a reality for her. I had to edit almost all of the photos to be pretty and black and white, and figure out how to fill the wall and buy all of the frames and re-figure out the layout and then print the photos, fill the frames and hang it all. It turned out to be a bigger project than I anticipated and I spent hours editing and planning and making sure it would all come together perfectly, and it did! Here's the result

So for my siblings out west who won't see it for awhile, I hope you all like how it turned out. I tried to include at least 2 shots of everyone. Hopefully we can continue to fill the wall in years to come! Thanks to my family for all of their help on this project! (Sorry the pictures of the end result aren't the best!)

Love!

Having the hardest time...

2011-05-04T15:01:00.000-07:00

I've been working on this project for a few weeks. I love all of the pictures I've seen around the interwebs with empty frames clustered together. Like these: (found on google images)

This third one has filled frames, but I like how they're spaced with an even line in the middle:

So I found a bunch of cheap frames (the cheapest of which were from the clearance section of TJ Maxx), and painted them black, grey and yellow. Now I am really struggling with finding an arrangement I like for these. See:

What to do???

Steele Pitas

2011-05-03T20:34:00.000-07:00

There once was an amazing meal made by my brother, Mathieu, and sister-in-law, Erin, which they called "Steele Pitas". It consisted of Zucchini, Yellow Squash and Ham sautéed with a blend of flavors and put into pitas with (I think) feta cheese. I did not have the recipe on hand, so I just made it up as I went along with what I remembered.

It isn't the prettiest food, but boy was it delicious. I take no credit for this recipe, but we are sure thankful to Erin for making it up.

This is how I made it:

Steele Pitas

2 Yellow Squash

2 Zucchini

6 brussel sprouts

3 green onions

1 c. Ham, cut into chunks

1/4 c Olive Oil

1/8 c Vinegar

1 packet Good Seasons Italian Dressing Mix

I didn't have the squash so we made do with just the Zucchini, and we chopped up about 3 into our skillet. Combined it with slices of deli ham (Erin used to make it with a chuck of ham, cut into thick cubes), because we had it on hand. We added a packet of Good Seasons Italian dressing and a little oil and vinegar for seasoning. Then I scrounged around in my fridge for other things to add, and ended up putting in some sliced green onions and chunks of brussel sprouts. We sautéed it until soft and flavorful and served it in whole wheat pitas with goat cheese and banana peppers to our liking.

My husband could not stop raving about how delicious these were. Our family has started a weight loss war, so we've been trying to find healthier dinners to make and incorporate a lot of vegetables, so this was perfect. I know we'll be having these in the future, and if I can get my hands on the real recipe, I'll post it. Thanks, Erin, for the great meal idea!! :)

Little Bags

2011-04-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

I recently acquired a bunch of amazing fabric from my fantastic mother. Since I've had such an interest in sewing as of late, she let me raid her sewing closet, which was filled to the brim with fabric. A lot of it was leftover from projects past, and could even be classified as 'vintage-y', which I adore.

When I brought it home, my handsome hubby said, "Some of this is kind of ugly." And I had to correct him and inform him that it's "vintage, not ugly." He always makes me laugh. :) I will admit that some of it isn't the prettiest fabric in the world, but will look awesome as lining in some of my future projects. I can't wait to get them all done!

So last night I tackled this bag tutorial, and made two bags. Rose had been wanting a new make-up bag for college, so I thought I'd try it out. It was a pretty simple tutorial and done very quickly. I'd recommend using a sturdier fabric than I used because mine doesn't hold its shape as well as it could. Mine also could have used some interfacing, like the tutorial recommends, but I didn't have any and didn't really care.

I also thought the one for me (the grey and yellow) was a bit too plain, so I took the idea from this photo,

which I have no clue where I got (if you know, tell me and I'll cite it). It took a few tries to get it just right, but I really think it's cute.

Butter Wafers

2011-04-27T14:59:00.000-07:00

I decided to make this recipe today (cookie number 2), because I haven't made cookies in awhile.

They're pretty light, so I decided to sandwich them with some melted semi-sweet chocolate chips, so that they resemble milano cookies.

They're pretty yummy. I've been filling my days with many projects and trying to learn as much as I can about sewing, crafting, cooking and photography. Hopefully one day I'll be able to feel like I'm good at these things. Until then, I'll just keep working on it.

Painting and Cheap Bunting

2011-04-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

Before:

After (almost done):

My work station, with my FIXED sewing machine, and

with many projects that are in progress and the new pretty stool:

Easy Bunting:FREE

I just had some yellow and black/grey paint sample strips from wedding stuff,

cut them into triangles and fed them into my sewing machine one by one.

Haven't yet decided if this will be the final place to hang it, but I like it for now!

Projects! And SISTERS!

2011-04-18T23:44:00.000-07:00

Wooohoo for it officially being Savannah's birthday! Love her!!

And also, woohoo for Rose spending the night with us! Having people over is fun! We dyed her hair...twice, because the first time it turned out weird! And we played our Kinect and made fools of ourselves, and she helped me with a shopping endeavor where I got a bunch of things for the projects I've been wanting to do! I'll try to take before pictures from now on, so you can really see the difference and appreciate the effort!

My first project of the day was out shopping, where I found a drill set for 30.00, with a nice drill and all the accessories and a hammer and pliers and everything! It rang up at 70.00, and I was like 'oh no, baby, it's 30!' and they gave me back my monies. Score! Now, the fun started!

Second project was replacing our broken (and pinchy) toilet seat. The last time I replaced a toilet seat, it was almost an hour long endeavor of sweatiness and horribleness and frustration. With my fantastic new drill set, it took approximately 3 minutes. AMAZING!

Third project was to replace the hardware on my sewing table/vanity. I was opening the drawers previously with exposed screws. Such fun! So I got pretty new handles and using my drill, put new holes in and installed in a snap! AWESOME!

Fourth project took awhile. Started with a cheap shadow box frame from TJ Maxx. I repainted the inside a grey, attached hearts to copy a pretty thing I found online at www.sarahandbendrix.com/ . Then I decided that I needed to repaint the frame as well to make it the most awesome. It took like ten coats of the last of my white acrylic paint to finally get it to look nice. Then I had to drill screw holes into the back to attach them together.

This drill is SO FLIPPIN SWEET, and probably my new favorite toy. LOVE IT! Can't wait to tackle my new projects for tomorrow and hang out with my bro Hunter. We're gonna have so much fun hanging out! SO EXCITED! :)

LOVE

Some things I learned from my grandmother

2011-04-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

Always wash your hands with cold water after handling onions. *LIFESAVER!*

How to make amazing pies.

Always use sharp knives.

Yum. I love using her talents! This is homemade tomato soup with corn and chicken. So gooood.
Recipe I used as a guideline.

April fun

2011-04-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

So on friday we had a little at-home date where we dyed eggs and made and frosted sugar cookies. I know it's a little early since Easter is weeks away, but it was nice to relax and have fun together.

Our very small apartment.

2011-04-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

I decided to show our little home today, since not many people have had the chance to see it. It is very small and cozy, but we're happy here for the time being.

The very small bedroom which barely fits any furniture with our queen bed.

My sewing/painting/photography desk.

Front hall with entrance to basement.

Blurry couch. Very soft, but both of us get back pain from it. :(

Our turtle, Donatello.

Our kitchen table. So nice to have one now, and not eating at the couch every night.

Half of our living room. Yay for yellow and black! :)

Jesse's nook.

We are lucky to have LOTS of shelving. :)

And our spacious kitchen. The one big room of the house.

That's about it. I look forward to the day when I can live in my own house, actually nail things into the wall and paint and stuff. Oh well. We're very happy.

also

2011-03-29T18:17:00.000-07:00

These are finished.

and i need to fix my sewing machine so i can continue sewing. Mom got me some sewing stuff, and I'm sooo excited to use it!

The Honeymoon!

2011-03-29T18:07:00.000-07:00

This picture shows just how awesome the cruise was. We stopped in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Nassau and Freeport in the Bahamas. We had so much fun snorkeling (WITH SHARKS!) and laying out on the beach, playing frisbee and learning how to cook some Bahamian cuisine. It was a fun, relaxing trip and we are NOT happy to be back home and straight to work, although it is nice to be back in our own bed and not living out of a suitcase. SO glad not to have sand everywhere!

I miss....

2011-03-18T15:27:00.000-07:00

What I'm working on

2011-03-13T21:18:00.000-07:00

Working on these simple paintings for our place. They're gonna say "All you need is love, love is all you need."

My sewing machine decided to break and I guess the timing is off, so I think I have to take it in to get fixed. Pretty frustrating since we've only had it for like 3 weeks.

oh well. time to start a new week. But we go to the bahamas on sundayyyy!

Wedding Gift

2011-03-11T18:14:00.000-08:00

Jesse and I got this great gift today from Sarah's parents. It's cross-stitched? or embroidered?...I'm not sure what you'd call it, but I think it's awesome! It even has little cala-lilies on it.

Stuff I've made:

2011-03-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

So, I don't necessarily like to think of myself as very crafty, but I have fallen in LOVE with sewing ever since we received a sewing machine for a wedding gift. I haven't been able to get to Jo-Ann fabrics yet, so when I was at Michael's with Rose, I picked up a t-shirt and a little quilting packet with a few different fabrics, cause that's all they had.

Rose LOVES Toy Story, so I pieced together one of those little martian guys and made her a t-shirt.
also-by the time i got to the letters, my back hurt so bad that you can see that i kinda quit half-way through. oh well.

After that, I started searching online for stuff to make. Rose showed me this website called "Craftgawker" where people post stuff, and I saw this cute little gift card purse thing, and I made a few: (Excuse the bad lighting, my phone camera isn't great).

Also, so I hate the throw pillows that came with the couch, so I cut off the outside and Made a new cover with some ruffles on it. I think I'm gonna make the other one plain so that Jesse doesn't think I'm totally overtaking the house with girly stuff :)

AND THENNN I knew Rose was looking for a good laptop bag and couldnt find a cute one. I had an old one that I cut down to fit hers, and resewed it together (which was stinkin' HARD with the zipper and everything being so thick) and put some ruffles and handles on it for her. She tried it out today, and it's a bit snug, but it works. I gotta work on leaving myself room for the hem.

I decided I wanted a headband, but then it was too pink so I figured I wouldn't really wear it, so I just turned it into a camera strap cover.

AND here's a turtle Pincushion that I wanna make! So flippin' cute!

Wedding Pictures

2011-03-10T19:37:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of Lisa Ruth Photography - The hook-up courtesy of Sarah Kay Steele :)

Update: The Dessert Table

2011-03-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

Maybe no one else thinks this is amazing, but I REALLY thought it came together nicely and I was really proud of it. Thanks to all of the good ideas from my mom and sarah!

also... um...

2011-03-08T18:03:00.000-08:00

how the HECK did my sisters and mother get so gosh darn beautiful and grown-up!? Seriously, they all look so amazing and gorgeous! I'm so jealous!

WEDDDDDDDING!

2011-03-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

No, I do not have pictures back yet from either of my photographers, but I will post them on here as well as Facebook as soon as I do. My mom put some up on facebook. Let's recap a little for those of you who aren't in the area or couldn't make it.

Friday we went to set up for the reception, and we were working around a lady setting up for a ward activity that night (the secretary had double-booked) at the Kreag Rd building. We had planned on doing christmas lights across the ceiling, so we started in. Figured out that about half of the strands that were at the building worked, so we headed to the store to get more. After getting 16 more sets of strands, and finding out that about 6 of them only worked on half the strand, we finally had the whole ceiling done. All in all, this took over 3 hours, several ladders, and 4 people.

Then we hung out at home for about an hour before we went out to pick up all the food. We spent some time at BJ's picking up food and then went to the building to drop it off, amid the hustle and bustle of the ward party. We had decided to go out to dinner with dad cause savannah was in town (woooohooo! I love my sisters!!) and found out then that hunter had hurt his elbow at the ski hill and had to be picked up. we ate our appetizers then mom left to go get him from Matt and Erin's. Got home and everyone then left to take him to the emergency room, later found out that he'd broken his elbow. Perfect timing!

I got about 5 hours of sleep then did my hair and all of my sisters' hair before we headed out the next morning to pick up the last of the food and take it to the building. We got to the building and saw several cars there... I was pretty confused since I knew we'd booked 3 of the rooms the whole day, so I'd expected no one to be there. We walked in and I broke into tears. Apparently some little kids had a basketball practice with their parents, and had kindly taken down all of the tables, chairs and LIGHTS that had taken us hours to set up the day before! They had thought they were helping take down from the ward party the night before and didn't realize, but amid my tears, I managed to explain and they all started helping to RE-set up everything we'd already done. I was SO stressed. Jesse came right over to help and we managed to get it all up and were only a half hour late to the luncheon.

The most frustrating thing was just that these lights were so crappy, we had to figure out which ones worked AGAIN and some of them only worked if you had them JUST SO and you had to wiggle it till it worked and then not touch it to get it to stay on. So frustrating. But all in all, it was ok.

The luncheon was great! SHOUT OUT to Erin for setting the whole thing up and making sure it went smoothly. The food was delicious and it was so nice to relax and talk with everyone before all of the other activities.

Then we picked up the cake and flowers and started in. We took pictures once everyone got there and had the ceremony. Everything went pretty smoothly, if not hilariously. My dad thought the ceremony was only a rehearsal so he was walking SUPER slowly down the aisle and was loudly encouraging everyone to sing "here comes the bride" as I tried to explain we weren't allowed to have it play. It was a beautiful ceremony and President Molinari did a wonderful job. I know I was crying through most of it!

The reception was so great. Everything came together better than I thought it could! It was so nice to see everyone who showed up! We had christmas lights across the ceiling, yellow balloons at each table, and black and yellow plates at each table. But my pride and joy was the dessert table. It was what i'd been looking forward to the whole time I was planning the wedding. I thought it was beautiful, and I hope someone got pictures of it! black tiers of plates with black and yellow sweets on it, a cake with black and yellow bunting flags. I really thought it was awesome. And the food from Otto Tomotto's was amazing. Thanks so much to Erin and Grandma Edie for recommending it!

We cut the cake and I narrowly avoided being smashed with it, and we danced our first dance. And then we did the daddy/daughter dance and we had "Danny's Song" playing and my dad sang it very loud and off beat the whole time. I loved it! It is SO him. He also lead very fast so we did about 3 circles for every 1 that Jesse and Mary did. Hahha. It made me laugh.

All in all, it was a memorable day, with minor catastrophes but I had fun, and I am so thankful to those who came. It meant so much to me to have Tom, Mary, Jenny and Grace, Mike and Angie, and Savannah come from so far to spend this day with us.

Pictures to come soon!

mmmmm

2010-11-28T20:22:00.000-08:00

You should be jealous of the guy I snagged.

He's the cutest, sweetest fiance I could ask for.

And he even makes me try new things (like sushi and eel),

and they're soooo good. mmm.

2010-11-21T17:29:00.001-08:00

2010-11-20T21:06:00.001-08:00

Can I just say...

2010-11-08T01:32:00.001-08:00

how much i LOVE this adorable boy with his bum in the air while he naps...

Oh by the way...

2010-10-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

I'm engaged! He's adorable too. :)

I was told to write.

2010-10-17T22:20:00.000-07:00

It's been months. I tend to over-share on here too, which I'm sure no one likes. But whatever. I'm here and I'm sure if I sit here long enough I can come up with things to say.

I like art. I paint, draw and shoot photography as well as edit. My ideal job would entail at least one of those things, but its pretty hard to find that work and get into it. Taking time off from college has helped me get some perspective on what I want to do with my life artistically and gain some experience in painting more and photography and editing.

Taking Sariah's senior pictures as well as rosemary's and soon remington's. It's been fun and i dont think I'm too bad at it. Now to the making of money....