5.31.2012

Mod Bod | PUMPED UP KICKS

Some of my posts for a while will be related to things I made for my trip to Thailand and Cambodia this spring with my husband and his classmates. Hopefully they're applicable for your traveling OR everyday needs!


I love high heels. At an astounding 5' 2" (cue laughter here) I can always use some help in the height department, and I love how heels can instantly make an outfit look polished. Even though it's often more practical to don flats, I don't have a very extensive collection of cute and comfortable flat shoes. I knew there would be lots and lots of walking involved in our Asia trip, so I headed out to Target (my second church) to find some cute and simple kicks. My options were a cute floral print (which I loved, but it seemed so trendy that I could imagine those shoes being out-of-fashion by next summer), some navy or teal lace-less slip-ons (also cute, but potentially problematic when matching to multiple outfits), or plain white gals. I didn't want to be a bore, but none of the colors/patterns available really fit the bill, so I went ahead and bought the white kicks. 

Never fear, though. I had a plan! Using some gray acrylic paint I had on hand (I told you I'm obsessed) and some masking tape, I marked out a simple striped pattern on both shoes and painted a couple coats. When I removed the tape, I realized my shoes looked kind of nautical (which is totally alright with me), so I searched the internet for some interesting shoe-tying methods that would look like sailor's knots. The picture below shows what I settled on. 



I'm pretty in love with these shoes. Besides travelling to Thailand and Cambodia, they followed me to KC and Vancouver. They're really in need of a wash, but I'm a little sad to wash off the dirt from so many different places. Is that weird of me?


5.21.2012

I'M BACK! (MOSTLY)

Whew! I have had a crazy few months. I originally gave myself a blogging break because I had just returned from Thailand with my husband. We had been separated for an entire month while he explore Thai medical clinics, and we really needed some good catch-up time. Once that need was mostly satisfied (I still can't ever seem to spend quite enough time with him for my liking), I was in full-force finals for my spring semester of school. My Main Man and I both graduated two weeks ago (even though I still need to finish one more semester), which increased our errands and time commitments even more. The next week, we headed out to Kansas City to look for housing for our upcoming move (remember when I mentioned that here?). The next week-- a.k.a. last week-- I traveled to Vancouver, B.C., for a field trip with my architecture studio. (By the way- it's a super cool city. I highly recommend it for a fun vacation. However, everything there was expensive plus they have really high sales tax!)

So are those good enough excuses for my long absence? I sure hope so, because I was sure I was losing my mind a few times in there. With the fun news that I'm going to start blogging again comes a slight caveat: I'm not coming back full force. Here's the honest reason: it's far too easy for me to put aside more important things (like washing laundry when we have nothing clean to wear and will look like beggars if I don't take care of it ASAP) in favor of crafting, photographing said crafts, or blogging. Also, I started to put some ridiculous pressure on myself, thinking that if I didn't post super regularly, and get lots of views, and make irresistibly adorable projects, I was failing myself and the world in general. Can you tell I'm a perfectionist and get really fixated on meaningless things?

My compromise with myself is this: I will post only one craft per week and I will do it on whatever day I feel like. It might be cute, it might be a total flop. Whatever. I just want to share the things I've enjoyed so other people can have inspiration to try a DIY every once in a while.

I hope you're OK with that, because I am, and that's how things will go here for a while.

4.12.2012

AWAY FOR A SPELL

Oh didn't I tell you? I'm giving myself a short hiatus. Sorry I basically dropped of the face of the blog world. After an amazing trip to Thailand and Cambodia (which inspired more than a few crafts I'll have to share sooner than later), I came home to realize I was only about 6 weeks away from the end of one especially hectic semester! Also, two days after our return we found out we're moving to Kansas City! Awesome, right? (If you or your friends/family have any great advice on moving or Kansas City, please share.)

So- life is so busy but so exciting. My Main Man is about to graduate and begin his residency in KC. I get to walk at graduation and then finish classes in August. And we have to move (twice kind of since I'm staying behind for six weeks), which requires so much work! The long and short of it is, I miss you all, but I have to take care of the rest of my life right now. I hope you understand and I hope you're still around when I make my next appearance!

3.16.2012

How to Throw a Winter Party | Decorations!

This week I've been sharing how I put together a "Cozy Winter Social". It was a perfectly fun way to distract myself while my husband was out of town. If you want to see the other stages of putting the party together, check out my posts from the rest of this week!

This week I've been sharing how I put together a "Cozy Winter Social". It was a perfectly fun way to distract myself while my husband was out of town. If you want to see the other stages of putting the party together, check out my posts from the rest of this week!



I saved this post for the end of the week because decorating was ABSOLUTELY my favorite part of this whole party. It managed to occupy the better part of two weeks (which was perfect to keep me busy without My Main Man around).


I was holding the party at night, so I thought it would be perfect to play off of that. I wanted to create the illusion of spending a wintery night out under the stars (let's be honest, the stars look so pretty and bright through a clear winter sky). I draped Christmas lights across the downstairs ceiling and only turned on the light at the top of our stairs (I'll explain why in a moment) and, if necessary, the light in the laundry room (since it's around the corner and only provides indirect light). Anywhere else I needed light, I sprinkled tea lights across the various tables. Again, keeping budget in mind, I needed to be creative to find easy candle-holding solutions, so I scoured my house for glass jars. I used a combination of jelly jars, baby food jars, the lids to those jars (painted white), and a metal tin to create a grouping of candle-light.



Flowers get expensive, and this party was winter-themed anyway, so I grouped some funky-shaped sticks as my "arrangements" at each table. Again, the sticks were free and the glass jars came from food I had already eaten, so they were basically free decorations. Remember when I showed you my super cheap candlesticks a few weeks ago? Well they were originally creme-colored, so I painted a few of them white to match the decor and hot-glued glass gars to a couple of them.

While I was putting together my Valentine banner using cheap felt, I also put together two triangular banners with my party colors. One was draped across the living room, and the smaller one was hung in a "U" shape over the food table to create a central focus.


The final piece to my party decorating was a photo booth at the top of the stairs. I tend to be lame at taking pictures during parties, so I thought a fun photo booth would help me document all of my lovely guests. For the backdrop, I draped a grey sheet across the wall and pinned various twine and long jewelry over the sheet. To make it fun, I set up a table with props including winter accessories and a dry-erase sign to write messages.

Check out yesterday's post to find out more about these super cool women. (Cousin-in-Law, Winter, The Rocker, Share-and-Tell, Half-Rich, and more!)
To tie everything together, I used ribbons, twine, and some grey strips as decoration. By keeping to a simple color and material palette, everything tied together well and I was so happy with how my decorations turned out!

This finishes up my week on throwing a winter party. I'm still vacationing, so I may not get right back into the swing of things next week, but I promise I'll be back ASAP!

3.15.2012

How to Throw a Winter Party | Fun Activities

This week I've been sharing how I put together a "Cozy Winter Social". It was a perfectly fun way to distract myself while my husband was out of town. If you want to see the other stages of putting the party together, check out my posts from the rest of this week!


***All of the photos in this post were generously donated by the lovely Winter of The Redd Party. You should totally check her out.***


I already mentioned the awesome raffle I had for my guests on Tuesday. I wanted to party to be a fun social where people just chatted and snacked, but I knew that might be hard with women that don't all know each other. So to prepare, I planned some Minute-to-Win-It games (do any of you watch that show and repeatedly say "I can totally do that!"?). We split up into four teams and played marathon-style until an ultimate winning team was chosen! (I may be fibbing on the names of some games I couldn't remember.)

ROUND 1: CD DROP
Essentially you try to drop cds onto a cup and get three to land withing a minute. All four teams gave it a go and no one could do it, so everyone moved on!

The O.G., Beautiful Brunette, and Cousin-in-Law give round 1 a go
ROUND 2: UP IN THE AIR
The object is to keep three balloons in the air using your hands, feet, or head for a minute straight. We had a hard time with this one, too, so we decided the three teams who lasted the longest would each move on.

Share-and-Tell, The Rocker, Half-Rich, and My Colorado Home Girl may have flailed around in pretty funny ways.
ROUND 3: ALL WRAPPED UP
One teammate would hold a roll of toilet paper on a wooden spoon or dowel, while another member had a minute to spin in circles, holding the toilet paper, and wrap their body with all of the paper from the roll. Every team managed to do this, so the two fastest teams moved on.

Nurse-in-Training (top) and I (bottom) did pretty well, but Winter's Asian eyes made her aerodynamic! (Her husband made up that joke, so I can't take credit, but really, she was speedy fast.)
ROUND 4: HEAD BANGER
This one was pretty simple. We tied a pedometer to each contestant's head, and she had to bang 125 times in a minute. This was particularly suited to The Rocker, who is a serious rocker/concert-lover. I loved her comment after her frenzied minute, "That's not even the most head bangs I've done in one night!"

The Rocker and SuperNurse were so in the zone and ready to head bang their way to fame and fortune.
ROUND 5: BRUSH WITH DANGER
I know that is the correct name for this game, so go look it up if you're interested. It was confusing, and basically impossible, so we had to make up an alternative round 6.

I really failed at this, but at least I have my serious concentration face on!
ROUND 6: GROUP HUG!
Like I said, we made this one up. All three members of each group had to hug a balloon between their three bodies while running a full lap across my living room, and the fastest team won. I hate to brag, but my team totally won! My other group members with my Colorado Home-Girl and SuperNurse; we're just awesome, what can I say?

For all the time I spent on decorating and baking, playing games was totally the most fun part of this extravaganza, and I was so happy to hang out with all my girlfriends!

Coming up with all these nicknames was hard, but here goes:
Top Row (L to R): SuperNurse, Beautiful Brunette, Share-and-Tell, My Colorado Home-Girl, Cousin-in-Law,
Nurse-in-Training
Bottom Row (L to R):Winter (her real name is too cool to warrant a nickname), Half-Rich, Me, The Saint (she teaches 8-11 year olds each Sunday, she deserves this nickname), The O.G., The Rocker
Whew!