Twenty-five to Life

Strange things...

2011-03-02T20:12:00.000-08:00

Toy Story is one of those movies I can watch over and over again. (C'mon-I know you secretly love it too.) So anyway, you remember how, pretty early in the movie, Buzz starts getting all the attention and Woody gets sad...? Then you hear the song playing, as if Woody's thinking it, "strange things are happening to me..." Well, that song has been on repeat in my head for the past two weeks, or so.

For months now, I've been saying that I really wanted to spend more time on my photography; that I want to build up my business so that by the time we have children, I can stay at home with them. I've been talking about it, but not really pushing it... Well recently, within a 5 day period, I was asked to photograph 2 weddings! This was so exciting, yet unexpected! THIS was my chance to prove to myself that I CAN do this! But then, a few days later, when I went to burn a disc of someone's photos, I got quite a shock. These precious photos, from such a special day, were gone. See, I'm a computer killer. I don't do it intentionally, but it happens. And it happened recently. Justyn tried to back up the laptop onto an external hard drive and when I went to retrieve photos to burn to disc, about 1/2 of the files from the laptop were gone. Including, the photos I was looking for. I was devastated. I sobbed. I'm talking, snot-slinging, ugly-face-crying, whole-body-convulsing, unconsolably sobbing. I said ugly things, like I never wanted to take pictures again, and that I didn't want that new camera that I've been studying and saving for. Justyn proceeded to tell me that I was a wonderful photographer, and that I couldn't let one incident like this hold me back, but I wasn't convinced. I didn't want to be responsible for someone's memories.

The next day I was a bit better--although, this was the day I told the family about what happened. While they were sad to hear the news, they were very understanding that it was an accident. I did my ugly cry every time I talked about it. It broke my heart. It still does. But then something happened. I realized that this situation, as awful as it is, is a learning experience. And just like my wonderful husband had told me, I can't give up. So I've decided I'm going to forge ahead. I'm going to push and work to build this photography business. I can do this, and I will do this. I have more motivation than I've ever had. I guess I feel like I need to prove myself now, more than ever.

So there you have it... Me, airing my dirty laundry. Putting it all out there. At first, I was ashamed, and didn't want anyone to know, but here I am, owning up to my short-comings. And that's ok. Because we're all imperfect. And let me tell you, I've certainly learned a lot from this experience! Strange things ARE happening to me. Some great and unexpected things, and some really crummy things. But I'm learning from all of them! So here we go, on an amazing, exciting and scary adventure-to Infinity and Beyond! (You know me-I had to throw in something corny!)

Update: We had someone scan our computer and they were able to find most of the images! Of course, none of the edited images were retrievable, but that's ok! And I've absolutely learned a valuable lesson about having a back-up for my back-up!

Burlap Wreath

2011-02-23T12:40:00.000-08:00

Better late than never, right?! I mentioned before that I'm in LOVE with burlap lately. I made this wreath for our front door for Valentine's Day, but it could totally be used for any time of year!

Here are the details on how I made it:

Supplies-Styrofoam wreath form, Liquid Stitch, burlap, fabric scraps, ribbon, hot glue and scissors.

Cut strips of burlap (mine were about 2-3 inches wide). Using a line of hot glue, attach burlap to wreath form, and begin wrapping strip around form. Continue until entire form is covered.

Next cut a piece of ribbon (about a yard or whatever length you like). I went ahead and tied the ends together to make a bow.

Then I layed the bow on the top of the wreath, so that the loop hung down behind it.

Reaching through the center of the wreath, I pulled the loop towards me and then over the bow. Then I pulled the bow through the loop to make an adjustable hanger.

Then I got started on the flowers.

I cut strips of fabric about an inch wide. I folded them in half and added a drop of LS (Liquid Stitch) to hold it together and started rolling the end up.

Once I had a center for the flower, I twisted the fabric and wrapped it around the center, twisted and wrapped, adding LS every couple of twists. (I made a few flowers out of fabric, some out of burlap and some out of the same ribbon from the hanger. For the burlap flowers, I used hot glue instead of LS, because the LS wasn't strong enough).

When I got to the end of the strip, I used LS to attach the end to the back of the flower.

Then I added a little hot glue to the back to attach to the wreath.

Here's the wreath hanging on our front door:

I love it, and have gotten quite a few compliments on it!

Anyone else made a wreath or anything else recently? I have a few other projects up my sleeve, to share with you! Check back soon!

These are the days of our lives...

2011-02-20T10:07:00.000-08:00

First things, first... My apologies for the mini blog hiatus! Since our puppy came home, life has been quite a bit busier. And in case you were wondering, we decided to name her Bailey. Here are some photos from the day we brought her home.

She's absolutely adorable!

Except when she pees and poops in her crate, and then rolls in it... Not so cute!

However, she is cute when she's all wet... So it kinda balances out.

(This photo actually taken 2/18, after above mentioned pooping and peeing episode...)

A few things we love about our long-eared, droopy-eyed girl:

Her ears are now long enough that they drag the ground when she has her head down. This means she occassionally trips over her ears...
When you catch her chewing on something, (ie-cords) and say "NO!", she spits it out and looks at you like, "I wasn't chewing on that!".
Naps! She still sleeps a lot, which we love for a couple of reasons. One is because we don't have to worry about where she's disappeared to or what she's chewing on... Also, we love all of her noises. If Bailey is asleep and rolls over, or gets woken up, she grunts. It is precious. She sounds like a pig rooting around. (She also grunts when she's happy, like when we rub her ears...)
Chasing her tail... Enough said.
Chasing her ears... If she turns her head quickly, she can see her ear(s) in her peripheral vision, so she tries to catch them...

And even though Bailey's taking up a lot of our time now, there have been a few other things going on around here... More to come!

Puppy Pictures!

2011-01-23T10:58:00.000-08:00

So last post, we mentioned that we are getting a puppy. And we're back with pictures! So without further ado, here's our newest family member....

Poor pup was so worn out, Justyn had to hold her head up!

Aadyn went with us to pick her out. She LOVED all the puppies!

(Thanks to Amanda and Darrell for sending us these photos!)

We've finally decided on a name for out sweet little Basset, which is good since we'll be picking her up next weekend! Any guesses on what name we chose?!

This is how we do it!

2011-01-16T17:42:00.000-08:00

If you're imagining me doing my best white-girl-can't-dance moves while singing "this is how we do it...", then you know me too well! (And by the way, that title has absolutely nothing to do with this post. It was stuck in my head, so I thought I'd share. :-D)

I had every intention of sharing a video house tour last week. But since I had some technical difficulties (no comments please!) and my technologically savvy husband was out of town for work, we'll have to wait on that post. In the meantime, I want to share some of my current home project inspiration.

I don't know about you guys, but I feel the need to decorate (at least a little) for every holiday. Justyn thinks I'm strange, but I just think I'm a festive kind of gal! (And I'm pretty sure there's a little ADD child inside of me. And she gets bored with the same decor. So why not use a holiday as an excuse to mix things up?!) So here are a few things I'm loving for Valentine's day:

This burlap wreath is sweet, cheap, and simple; 3 of my favorite things! Check out the tutorial over at My House of L to make your own. (This is on my to-do list!)

And I love this "specimen art" and this framed heart, both from Embelishing Life. (Can you tell I'm into burlap lately?)

So, like I said, just a few things I've seen floating around on the WWW. Anybody else out there have V-Day ideas to share? Am I the only one with decor ADD?

PS-Speaking of Valentine's Day and LOOOOVE... We're pretty much in love with our soon-to-be new addition! That's right; we're getting a PUPPY! Pictures coming soon!

Snow Day

2011-01-11T19:49:00.000-08:00

I loooove snow!! I get excited and giddy every time I hear the word. The past couple snows of this season, both Justyn and I have had to work. However, we both got lucky today and got a snow day! After sleeping in, we got back to work on our office makeover. (The office was the only room in the house that was not functional. It actually had started turning into a catch-all room and we needed to nip it in the bud!)We started painting and assembled our new Ikea desk on Sunday, but we still needed to finish cutting in and do touch ups. We also bought some storage boxes that needed to be assembled. After some painting, assembling, and a little building (can you say picture ledges, a la Ana White?) we decided it was, after all, a snow day and snow days are supposed to be lazy. So it was only natural that we hit the couch and never looked back. Not to worry though! We'll share more on our office makeover soon!

What's your ideal snow day consist of? Do tell!