I kind of love this

Because you know, we all have some issues with our bodies and it's hard to accept what we have. I think that I came across this at the right time, because I looked in the mirror today and said "I'm lovin' my body" and that was that. It's taken a long time for me to accept the way I'm shaped, and you know what? I'm done doubting it and being upset about it. So here's to all those beautifully shaped women!

p.s. I saw this over on Highsnobette, which if you are interested in women's fashion check it out.

weekly kitten post

Because I can! And look at that face! What a cutie!

(Cuteboyswithcats)

Your weekly kitten post...

Cute little babies!

(FFFFound)

I'm noticing a trend

New Mint green eye shadow on sephora's website. I'm wondering a) how will this actually look and b) how are you supposed to wear it? Either way I'm interested, because let's get real I LOVE mint green. Jenn, teach me the ways! Here are a few I saw online:

Just a little something....

I wanted to share on the interweb. Why you ask? Simply because these images made me smile and giggle. Enjoy!

Ugh, say what?! (FFFFound)

This guy looks miserable, but so darn cute! I kind of feel bad for him, but not enough to not laugh. (FFFFound)

Cute Boys with Cats

Ok, this photo is kind of lame, but that's because this guy is from richmond and he was on the best blog in the world Cute Boys with Cats . Please entertain yourself for hours of cuteness. And I'm not sorry all these photos involve cats!

Men's style

Let talk a little bit of men's styling. I love to read Selectism, an online magazine dedicated to the wondrous world of being an up to date, fashion forward man. Yum! Yes, I just said Yum, because A) I love men's fashion for some weird reason and B) if I were gonna dress a man, it would be by the hands of these gentlemen. You should check out their site and watch the awesome videos they have on how to wash jeans, how to makes shoes and other magical how to's. But what I really wanted to post about was this book: The Bearded Gentleman. It is a guide on facial hair offering 50 different styles and also going into the details of why (religious or not) men choose to maintain facial hair. I think it would be a fun gift for the man in your life who enjoys a good beard or stach.

Useless post?......Maybe

Autism

So I'm fairly certain everyone has come in contact or known someone close to them with autism. It has been increasing in children over the past decade, or so it seems. Sometimes I think we are just advancing our knowledge on what autism really is and what we didn't know how to diagnose before we are finding the truth in it now. I wanted to post about this because of some amazing photo stories I found on CNN.com contributed by Time magazine that brought me to tears, and yes I'm totally aware that I cry for just about anything, ha. But I'm sure once you see these photos and the descriptions you will do the same.

When I was 13/14 I did a lot of baby sitting around the neighborhood. One neighbor had a child with autism who was extremely high functioning, to me (not having an understanding of what autism really was) he just had a few weird quirks that most children didn't. The neighbor on the other side had a child who was severely mentally retarded. For me, when I think back on it, he was such a learning experience and sometimes I think both these boys lead me into what I'm doing with my life now. The child with MR was very difficult to take care of and sometimes at such a young age I'd say it was a bit traumatizing. I remember having to put him to bed and locking him in his room, sounds terrible right? But the parents had to, otherwise he would wonder out of his room at night and they might never know. Anyway back to these stories from CNN!

The first is about a child named Daniel, he lives in Austin, TX with a caregiver who is devoted to his every need. She ran a daycare before taking Daniel into her home full time, now her ever action revolves around Daniel's autism. Read the story here.

The second story is about the Dragonfly camp for children with autism. See the photos here. Everything they do is to enhance the child's confidence and specialized to deal with their autism. They still completed activities most children would in a normal camp, it might be a bit slower, but no one gives up on them. I would love to go to this camp and volunteer as a counselor. The photo above is part of the series and made me cry, the young girl in the wheelchair had to leave the camp the second day and the boy beside her was trying to comfort her. UGH! again the tears! It is amazing that compassion and being able to relate to another persons emotions does not stop with something like autism. I also really loved this photo,

autistic children have lower muscle tone than most children, so they can't do strenuous work like most and require frequent breaks. Here the child just decided to plop down and rest on top of his counselor. I can only imagine how amazing the counselors are, they must have so much patience, compassion and a real drive to work with these children everyday.

what I've been up to...

So since Jason and Deanna got married I was feeling a bit lost in the craft department. I mean come on! There was nothing else I could think of to make that didn't involve weddings, I blame it on myself really, it was all the wedding blogs I just couldn't tear myself away from.......and still can't! But now I have a reason to read them because both Gretchen and Sissy are engaged!!!!! I'm very excited about both and now I have little something to work with. Although Gretchen and Chris's wedding is basically planned and ready to roll, I'm not doing much crafting for that wedding, just helping the week before with the handmade touch. I'll be helping with arranging flowers, carving pumpkins (which all flowers and pumpkins are coming from our family farm!) and general rounding of decor and goodness. I'm hoping for sissy's wedding I'll be doing more crafting, I'm sure that she's got a list of things she already wants to work on seeing as how she is an amazing quilter.

Anyway, the point of this was to tell you that in between weddings Jason's sister Brianne married her boy Mike. I was really surprised when Brianne asked me to make custom table runners for the even. I thought it would be awesome so I said yes! Let me just tell you making 17 custom table runners from scratch and then monograming each twice started to make me fucking crazy, but in the end I finished! And the most important part was that both the bride and groom really enjoyed them! I also make Brianne's garter from V-tech colored ribbon and I have to say it turned out to be the best garter I've ever made, sadly it'll have to remain a mystery because I don't have a photo.

After all that work you can imagine that I was thrilled to hear the buzz around the reception room about the runners. The guests were very kind! So after that it was time to get down on the dance floor! Deanna and I love to dance so I will leave you with this:

Doesn't it look like I'm trying to fight Deanna?! Best darn photo ever!

And then this one is very precious! It's Deanna's mother, Sue, then Deanna, Her mother-in-law Kathy and then Me! We were a bunch of party animals, let me tell you. All of the photos were taken by the amazing Jason Collins of Delirious Photography...you should hire him!

Ok, so I know I've been gone for a while, but come on Deanna is the only person who reads this! Also Deanna I hope this morning when you are going through your blog roll that you get a smile from this. Anyway, the point is I'm making an effort to come back and actually post about something worth while! Although I haven't been posting do not mean I haven't been all over the internet myself, trust me is it currently 3am, so you know I've been surfing.

So in my attempt to share with the world something meaningful and possibly useless at the same time I found these ladies.

It is new and not much to the website, but the gals are precious and I'm hoping that it will develop into something as meaningful as they have described on their site. The music video is amazing and I'm jealous of all the beautiful vintage dresses.

Hopefully one of these days I'll attack the world with something as inspiring as these ladies!

I need something new!

So I've been off work since last thursday night and let me tell you I don't know what to do with myself. I know I should be stoked to have so much time off, but I really don't have much going on outside of work, it's all random and unpredictable. So I'm awake and I started knitted today, I need a hat, but honestly there is only so much knitting a girl can do in one night, so I paused. Now I'm listening to Azure Ray and Son Ambulance, god I miss these bands. They remind me of fall and the weather as of late has been so amazing I might just be in love with it. I found the above photo on FFFFound and thought it was pretty cute and accurate. Christ I'm going crazy in this apartment, tomorrow I'm getting out and I'm just going on the move. 

On another note, I decided to have a handmade christmas again this year so I'm starting my list now! And shortly I will have to start making my gifts. I think last year was nice, but not everyone uses their gift so I'm gonna go a little bit more simple this year. Ok I promise I'm done babbling on.

HOLY SHIT I ALMOST FORGOT! RYAN AND LIZ ARE MARRIED!!!!!! 

Their beautiful wedding was last saturday, it was great I cried (of course) during the vows, they both wrote such touching words to each other and I danced! I hope that someone got a cute photo of me dancing with Liz cause I forgot my camera!

What I need...

A man who can sew! Or who's just interested in creating something. I stole this photo from someone's blog and awfully enough forgot. My bad I suppose. Well I'm supposed to be at work right now working the 7pm-7am shift and right while I was getting ready work called and canceled me for the first 4 hours because they were over staffed. Now I know what you are thinking, Sweet! But no this comes out of my vacation time and last week they did this to me and only to call me an hour later begging me to come in because they had gotten so many admissions. Can you tell I'm slightly annoyed? Anyway I'm waiting to hear from them to see if I'll be coming in at all tonight, here's hoping that I do. 

Anyway, Jason and Deanna are married! yayaayay! The wedding was awesome! I seriously danced my ass off, so much that my feet were swollen the next day, maybe it had something to do with the 3 1/2 inch heels I was wearing and refused to take off since they looked so good, ha! Speaking of those shoes I ruined them :( I was drunkenly putting all my stuff in my bag at the end of the night and my iron leaked water all over them and now the dye has started to run off. I'm hoping I can take it to the place and they will dye it a sapphire blue! I don't have any photos from the wedding, but I'll steal some from someone on facebook and post them. 

I've been thinking about what my next project will be and honestly I have no idea. I was toying with the idea of making a really simple dress and just beading the heck out of it since my sister taught me beading. Ok this post is way too long, tell me what to make!

  

It's like a brand new couch!

The before couch that I've had for a few years and the pictured cat has destroyed. It's comfy and it pulls out into a full sleeper, which my dad really loves to sleep on. Weird I know. Anyway I really wanted something that looked more adult than college student and decided, Why not try to re-cover it myself? So I hailed Jenny for a cut of yellow twill and started on it! Here's what it looks like now: 

Doesn't it look like a brand new Ikea couch?! And I really like the way it looks in our new grey living room.I'm totally in love with it! I mean sure there are some mistakes and it's not perfect, but no one really notices them anyway. Also I only spent $43! CAN YOU FUCKING BELIEVE THAT! I am just thankful that it turned out so nicely, it was certainly an adventure!

Wedding Crafts- #5 The Toss!

Deanna and I were talking one day and the topic of what the toss as the couple left came up. They didn't want something that everyone else does and then I thought of these: 

Deanna modeling how to use the packets.

So the idea came up and Deanna loved it! Yay! So I printed the type on sheets of Velum paper that read "Shower the Newlyweds with your love!" The proceeded to cut out each on a sew them, which is what you see in the first photo. I was sewing them in long chains and one was long enough to react across the living room ha! Then we, meaning me, Julia, Deanna, and Jenn hand cut each heart out of card stock that varied in colors and of course had glitter! I then stuffed them and sewed the top closed! I think they came out nicely!

Wedding Crafts- #4 Bridal Shower Favors

So for the bridal shower we had a cute little tea party, which turned out to be loads of fun and I left with a stomach full of treats. So I decided that the favors should reflect our days events, tea and treats! I was thinking, hmm what could I make that someone could actually enjoy and keep and enjoy later on? So I came up with these little cuties:

The finished product! Now on to how they were created!

Honestly I just cut the napkins into 9"x9" squares and serged them!

I used 3 different Amy Butler patterns that I thought looked like they could belong at a tea party. Sorry these photos are off because they were taken at night under crappy lighting.

Then I placed a mini-scone and bag of Deanna's favorite tea: Early Grey.

Then tied them up with tags that read:

"Thanks for joining us! Please enjoy tea another day on us!"

People seemed to really enjoy them, I just hope that they kept the napkin to use again at home.

Wedding Crafts- #3 Ring Pillow & Day of Clutch

So this little clutch was made by the request of Deanna's mom. She thought it would be nice to have a little bag to carry her things around in the day of the wedding, how could I resist? I do love a good clutch, plus I was able to use the fabric from her mother's dress. The small lace detail you see is also from her mother's dress, I really love that we were able to use her dress for so many  things. I finished it a  long time ago, but I'm realizing now that it really needs some interfacing, so I'll be finishing that soon, probably tomorrow.

This is the pillow I made for the rings to be carried on by Jason's sweet little cousin. Again, the fabric is from Deanna's mother's dress. Then I added some sage green ribbon that matches the bridesmaid's dresses. In the photo are a few of my rings just to see what it would look like. What do you think?

More fashion week....

Tuleh

Tuleh 

Lela Rose

DVF

Derek Lam

And not to mention that I FUCKING LOVE TAYLOR SWIFT! I'm sorry I just can't contain myself anymore, I'm currently jamming to 'Love Story' with my cat and loving it! Anyway, here are a few more looks from Spring 2010 fashion week.

2010 Spring Fashion Week...

Ruffian

Organic by John Patrick

Organic by John Patrick

Luca Luca

LAMB

Boy By Band of Outsiders

Boy By Band of Outsiders

BCBG

Adam

These are a few of my favorite looks for spring 2010, as of yet, meaning Marc Jacobs hasn't shown, ha. Let's get real when he shows my life will once again revolve around all things Marc.   Yum!

Are they just as good....

Or would it be settling for the cheaper option? I'm not sure how I feel, but I found these beauties on Urban Outfitters.com and I've been seriously thinking about getting them since I can't afford that amazing pair of pumps I posted about last week. Tell me what you think? I mean a third of the price does sound tempting doesn't it?

Also I've been searching for a dress to wear to Ryan and Liz's wedding but I'm having a bitch of a time, HALP ME! 

Music!

Ok so let's talk about music. I know I don't have the best taste in music to most people, but I'm happy with it, ha. I have a pretty good mix and lately I've been listening to Taylor Swift non-stop, I know I always swore off country music, except the holy trinity: Reba, Patsy and Dolly. Anyway I was searching the web today and saw this video:

And I Oh so totally love paramore! I think she has a great voice and most of the time doesn't use it to it's potential, 

but there are a few songs where her voice is so amazing it kills me!

Anyway, Listen to this song and love it, it's so good even if it's a cover. I do have a soft spot for female vocals.

Oh shit...

Christ these shoes over at Habitat are THE BOMB DOT COM! If only I had $170 to spare I would scoop them up! Also I've been on the heal hunt for a while, but mainly because I can't really wear anything higher than 3 inches, but that's sometimes pushing it. So I've been searching for up to date looking shoes and not to mention they have to meet some requirements and now that I found my awesome grey pumps I've been finding more and more heels that I want. The bad thing? They are all fairly pricey shoes, what can I say I have good taste haha.