Paying it Forward

On a fun blog I follow, Tonia at the Gunny Sack posted about paying it forward and sending little gifts to blog readers. I thought it would be fun to play along. I mean, who doesn't love getting gifts?! :) And I LOVE giving gifts!

The first three people to comment on this post will receive a gift from me! It may be something that I long for and wish to share with others, something to wear or maybe just something I love! Whatever it is, it will get special thought and care just for you! And chances are it will be something craftily awesome! :)

The fine print:

• Within a year (it'll be sooner than later), I’ll create something unique to share with the first three people to comment on this post.
• But, in order to receive your present you have to play along. Spread the love on your own blog promising to send a little special something to the first three people who comment on your post.
• You get 72 hours to re-post, or I’ll have to move on to the next person.

Ok. So these are the rules set forth by somebody somewhere back in the links of links of links. And make sure to leave a way for me to contact you so I can send you some goodness! :)

Seems fun right?! I'm excited to send out some packages!

 

 

Abigail's Dress: A Bridesmaid's Dress Recycled

Once upon a time a dear friend, Lisa, got married in May, 2006. She asked me to be her bridesmaid, along with another one of our roommates, Natasha.

We (and when I say "we," I mean "Natasha") made our beautiful bridesmaids dresses. To add a little something fun to the bodice and the skirt, I hand sewed (because that's all I'm good for) a beaded flower pattern on to them.

Yes, they were hot pink crepe-back satin. And they had a small train on the skirts. And they were gorgeous. And we loved them.

Now, imagine two girls in hot pink running around Temple Square. Yep. Everyone saw us and noticed us. I mean, hot pink satin is not standard fare around there. :)

With a picture, I guess it's not hard to imagine. :) This is Natasha and I in our dresses waiting for Lisa and Adam to come out of the sealing.

So I've had this beautiful dress that I absolutely love because it is beautiful (yes, I really do love the color of the fabric) and because it is very sentimental to me.

But I knew I would never wear it again.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago when I was in Chicago visiting Lisa, Adam, and Matthew. Lisa is pregnant and found out while I was there that she's having a girl! YAY! I knew I wanted to do something special for her. I decided that Lisa's little girl (whom they are naming Abigail--love!) NEEDED a dress made out of my bridesmaid dress. It was funny because the morning I left, Lisa's mother-in-law, Marta, suggested the same thing!

So I came home and started plotting. I knew I needed someone to sew the dress because I can't and didn't want to risk learning and then ruining my beautiful dress.

It's a good thing that I have a sister that loves me, knows how to sew, lives close, and is willing to entertain my crazy ideas. (Erin, move home soon so I can say the same thing about you too! ;) hahaha.)

We (and when I say "we," I definitely mean "Cait") embarked on this adventure of converting the bodice of my dress into a baby dress. Fortunately, Cait has a great mother-in-law that took the time to figure out how to make it work, because apparently it was a bit tricky.

And I'll be honest, literally all I did was act as cheerleader. I did none of the machine sewing and all of the purchasing the miscellaneous notions that were required (which weren't many since the dress was already lined and I had tulle from my skirt, YAY!).

This was the first time Cait had every made clothes. (She did great!) It took awhile to do, but she does have a baby so I didn't mind.

As the dress came near to completion, there was lots of extra fabric, so Cait decided that she wanted to make other things....

like a ruffily diaper cover. Who doesn't love a ruffily hot pink diaper bum?

and an adorable baby wipes case, matching hair bow, and a pacifier holder thingy.

Cait got real crazy with it. :) And I loved it all!!

And the dress is done! :)

Here is the overall look, modeled by my freakin' adorable niece, Rachel.

It's official, hot pink is a good color for her. :)

I picked up some cute little shoes to go with it too--which were on clearance at Target! I was looking for cream ones to break up the hot pink and match the ribbon, but these were what I found. They are perfect!

I'm so excited for Lisa to get it! Agh. It's killing me! :)

Butterfly Quote Wall

Over the weekend I worked on tons of projects, including this one. Actually this is one of the few I actually finished. Ha ha ha

Awhile ago, Lys re-did her bedroom and decided that she wanted a vinyl quote on her wall, like the one I had done downstairs. The quote she picked out was "If nothing changed, there would be no butterflies" by Walt Disney.

I loved the quote and thought it was perfect. Things kept coming up and so the project kept getting delayed. Well this weekend while she and her family were out of town, I surprised her with the quote. 

I used my amazingly awesome Cameo and cut the letters out with vinyl after much consternation and decision making about the font and size of the letters. I also found a fun butterfly graphic on the Silhouette graphic site (so awesome!) and cut it out too.

I taped up all the letters to see about the spacing and to see how they lined up.

Once I liked it, I started sticking them to the wall, very carefully. And then rubbed them onto the wall with my finger. I was using the stick the vinyl comes with, but I was pressing too hard and didn't want to break the stick so I just my finger, which was better.

Then once all the letters were done, I was trying to figure out how to do the butterfly and I realized that the end was the same size as the end of the "s", so I just attached it there.

Here is the project when it was all done.

Here is the message I got on facebook when Lys got home from vacation and found it:

"hey, it's totally late [um, it was 10:18pm when she posted this] so i'll text ya in to morning, but THANK YOU SOO MUCH FOR DOING MY WALL! IT LOOKS SOOO AMAZING!! LOVE IT! YOU'RE SO THE BEST EVER :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D"

I think she liked it. :) It was a fun little surprise and I liked how it turned out. :)

My Purse

So I saw a post on another blog that has guest posts about what is in other people's purses and I thought it would be funny to post what in my purse. It's a bit eclectic. And odd. And there are somethings I have no idea why they are in there.

This is my current purse. I love it. I got in on clearance at Kohls almost two years ago. I paid $7 because the purse was no longer in their system and they told me to find the cheapest one in the bin and they would use that price. And I had a gift card, so I actually didn't even have to pay for it. :) About 6 months later, the purses came back in at full price...of $80.00. Yeah, it was awesome. :)

 

Alright, so here is everything in my purse. I can't believe my purse holds all this stuff. And usually I have a book in there. The only reason it isn't is because I forgot it at home this morning. (I'm reading Catching Fire again.) To make it a little easier to explain everything, I've numbered the items in the picture. Hope that helps. :)

 



 

1) My checkbook. Pretty sure I've had it for a couple of years and there are a total of 4 checks used. I don't like writing checks.

2) A tithing slip from last week that I haven't put away.

3) My wallet stuffed full of receipts, notes, and cards (but only one credit card!).

4) My favorite sunglasses. This is probably the 5th or 6th pair I've bought of this style. Yay Target!

5) My keys with my three library cards. It's probably lame that I have three library cards. Oh well. :) Free books are free books.

6) My medications. I'm not a sickly person, but I guess I just ultra prepared? The first tube one is my epi-pen just in case I eat walnuts, pineapple, or get stung by bees/wasps/or fire ants. Thankfully I've never had to use one in the 1.5 years I've had to carry it.  My other meds are just Motrin and Tylenol and a prescription for coldsore meds.

7) My mace (yeah, I totally have some of that), a random battery that I have no idea why I have in there, and a USB drive that I carry some documents on. It's come in handy to have one in my purse.

8) A compact with powder, and a Target receipt.

9) My two favorite oil perfumes from here. They are Very Pink and Love Spell. mmmmm good. They are years old and have lasted a really long time. Love it!!

10) Nail clippers and a cool new penny.

11) This one is a bit weird. 2 pencils, 3 pens, and 3 small notebooks. I have no idea why so many. On top of the notebooks are two hair clips.

12) 3 different papers from recent outings. The first is the Sacrament Meeting Program from last week. I don't know why it's in my purse. The other two are from the CA YSA conference that I went to last weekend. The purple on is a handout from a workshop about emotional inteligence and the second is the program for the weekend.

13) Peppermints and Dove Chocolate. That piece of chocolate is way old, ewww. The peppermints I always have on hand for medicinal purposes. Seriously. I have a gluten intolerance and sometimes I get sick to my stomach. And I don't have time for that and so I suck on peppermint to help calm my stomach down. It seriously really helps with just about any stomach problem! Try it!

14) Cortizone 10, lotion, Anti-frizz hair goo, and eye drops. Having the cortizone 10 has come in so handy. So I always keep it in there.

15) Gum and my boss's business cards (because I don't get my own). I rarely chew gum, but when I want to, I need to have it on hand. :)

16) Again, I rarely use chapstick, but I found multiple tubes in my purse. Wierd. And I have my bluetooth--in order to meet the cell phone "hands-free device" requirements here in California.

 

So there you have it. I'm a horder. I have tons of stuff in my purse. Half of which I don't even use, but keep it there "just in case." :)

Little Miss Bunny Fu Fu

The other night, we (Me, Cait, Nick, and Rachel) went over to the Fluckiger's for some "family" hanging out time and to get free fabric. I just love them. I'm so glad that our families adopted each other. Their kids were my babies. Now the oldest, Sean, is almost 22! Eek!

And Kevin. Ohmigosh. Don't get me started. I was 15, almost 16, when he was born and he's been my "baby" his whole life. Yeah, he doesn't like that now that he's 13 and almost as tall as me!! Double eek!

I happen to be over earlier last week to try to pick something up and hung out for a couple of minutes and chatted with Kev and Lys. All was well. BUT THEN, THREE HOURS LATER...I stopped by the house to actually pick up the goods and KEVIN SUDDENLY DEVELOPED A MAN VOICE!! Eek! Eek! Eek!

I feel old. And I banned him from ever talking to me again. ha ha ha. My baby. My little adorable baby has a man voice. Sheesh. And I'm not even his mom.

It was funny because Sunday we were hanging out and Michelle actually pointed out that Kevin had a bit of a mustache growing. I hadn't even noticed! But once she pointed it out--it was so obvious that he had a bit of shadow. Cait, of course, teased him about getting into Michelle's makeup. What was weird is that it didn't freak me out much as his man-voice.

I'm so weird.

Ok, so on to some adorable pictures of little miss bunny fu fu.



Nick making Rachel walk on the ceiling. She thought it was so hilarious!



Rachel loved having pictures taken of her. She always got a big grin on her face when the flash would go off. She was so giggliy all night. So freakin' cute!!

It's kinda weird that Rachel has turned so blond since she was born. But I love it.

Rachel really, really loved the camera. She was so excited when I got it out. And those two tiny teeth kill me! So cute!



Tucker (the dog) and Rachel developed a special bond after he decided to make out with her. And she LOVED it! It was hilarious. He hasn't been around babies much, but Rachel loved the attention and he was happy to love on her. So cute. She giggled and tried to pet him whenever he was around.

We had tons of fun hanging out and laughing about Rachel, Tucker, and Kevin's freaky man-voice. I just wish the rest of our family could have been there. :)

Dream Home

Thanks to Pintrest, I found this AMAZING website that lets you create a floor plan for your dream home. You pick out the features and other details and it'll come up with examples. So brilliant.

I found this Georgian Beauty.

 

 

 

 First Floor Layout:

 Second Floor Layout:

 
Here are some of the features:

Primary Style	Georgian	Bedrooms:	5
Half Baths:	2	Baths:	3
Living Area:	5,048 sq.ft.	Width:	83' 6"
Foundation:	Crawlspace	Depth:	71'
		Stories:	2
Styles:	Colonial Georgian Country Cottage	Garage Bays:	4

Fireplace

Country Kitchen

Patio/Terrace/Veranda

Columned Front Entry

Deck

French Doors

Columns-Interior

Storage/Attic Space

Private Outdoor Living

Jack and Jill Bath

Porch/Deck-Upper Level

Outdoor Kitchen

Art Niche

Balcony-Exterior

Balcony-Interior

Breakfast Nook

Built-In Booth/Banquette

Built-In Cabinets, Shelves, Desks

Dressing Room

e-Space/Computer Area

Family Room

Fireplace in Master Suite

Formal Dining Room

Formal Living Room/Parlor

Game/Recreation Room

Great/Gathering Room

Home Theater/Media Room

Kitchen Island

Laundry Room-Main Floor

Loft

Master Foyer

Master Suite-Second Floor

Mud Room

Office/Study/Den/Library

Open Floor Plan

Optional Bonus Space

Plant Shelf

Side-Loading

Sitting Area

Snack Bar

Walk-In Pantry

Window Seat

Workshop/Hobby Room

Butler's Pantry

I think it's PERFECT!

Medium cost to build: $669,460. The high cost is over a million dollars! Eek. I don't think that cost includes all the stuff to furnish and decorate the house. :(

Maybe not so perfect. But still so beautiful!

The World of Harry Potter Meets MY Real Life

So I'm a harry potter fan--not obsessive, mind you, but I do enjoy the books and movies. They're fun and I love the happy ending. Seriously, I love it.

But today I learned something. IT'S REAL!

Ok. Not really, but there is some truth to one little tiny aspect:

The FREAKIN' GIANT Spiders (pretty sure that's the official name) in the second book. I now feel Ron's pain and fear of spiders.

(I briefly contemplated including a picture from the movie to illustrate...but then I got freaked out and didn't. :) You're welcome.)

This morning my co-worker walked along the back hallway and found A FREAKIN' GIANT Spider just chillin' on the carpet. 

It was larger than a half dollar. Which is really big. Seriously. Normally, I'm mostly okay with dealing with bugs---I mean, I had to be as a kid--I grew up on a farm. I even "dealt" with a gigantic centipede (3"!) about a month ago...but this spider was even too much for me.

We squealed like little girls when we saw it. Pretty sure my coworker cried a little. We tried to get closer than 10 feet, but we got freaked out because we couldn't tell which way it was facing and were worried that it would attack us. Seriously...and later we found out that our fears were TOTALLY justified.

Then the my brave co-worker showed up and she even had a hard time going near it. Finally, because we were all terrified that it would disappear in the office, she tried to put a glass over it to catch it so when the attorneys came in they could deal with it.

The first time she tried, she missed and the spider JUMPED at her and chased her a little. Yeah, she totally ran away, while Melissa and I (who were 15 feet down the hall) screamed and ran away too. It was quite hilarious.

The second attempt was much more successful. The spider was caught. And I bravely got close to it. It's hard to tell how big it is because the carpet is good camouflage, but its gigantic. Take my word for it.

Half an hour later, the three bosses came in and we tasked them with dealing with it. It was pretty hilarious watching them. The hard-core, tough attorney wouldn't even go near it. :)

Finally my boss got a file folder and scooped it up with the glass over it. I wanted to get a picture to show the pest control guy, but Sam kept teasing me and lifting the glass "so I could get a better picture." When he did and when the spider started running around I almost swore. I don't swear--I'm not naturally inclined to do so, but man I came so close this time. Instead, I just squealed "Sam!" really loud and ran away. And everyone laughed.

This first picture is what happened when the camera took the picture as I was trying not to swear.

I couldn't get a better picture (not that I really wanted to) because Sam wouldn't hold still. Oh well. :) But mind you, that glass isn't very big...and yes, the spider was trying to climb up it. *shiver*

So he disposed of it and flicked it outside. I, for one, thought it was an abomination for spiders to be that big and thought it should have been sentanced to death, or at least life in prison, but Sam just let it outside into the field behind our office so it can prey on unsuspecting rabbits or small children or large adults.

And all day I have been feeling creepy crawly things crawling on my toes, because today I decided to wear open toed shoes.

Ew.

Yeah, Clark Pest Control totally got called in today. We seriously needed them--just like the commercials say. :)