Yee Ha!

 This Memorial Day weekend was full of adventures! Amanda's wedding was on Saturday and it turned into a high school reunion! I got to go swimming for the first time of the season at Rachel King's parent's gigantic pool. And we celebrated my little sister Brooke's 9th birthday! She had a cowgirl themed party complete with a horse cake and everything!

I love this! Cowgirl Granny and Cowgirl Grandma ready to lasso up some CAKE!

 

 

 

 

 Even though I've never had my own, I really enjoy going to weddings. Its been quite the experience graduating college and now going through the motions of nearly everyone I know getting married. I liked going to weddings before but now that I actually know the couples, its really special. 

Amanda had just changed to get ready to leave for Disney World! I'm jealous!

Congrats to Amanda and Kyle!

Kindle cover: easy as felt!

I love having an etsy shop but it seems that I do my best work when people ask me personally for something they want, or when I'm making a gift. I work better with a looming deadline and at the last minute. Therefore making up extra items to sell in a shop is extremely difficult for me. They aren't necessarily going to be "flying off the rack." So then I have all these lovelies sitting in my studio longing for a home. Besides aren't things better made fresh to order? That's what I thought!

Here's a sneak peek into a project I'm working on for a lovely friend. She told me she wanted a kindle cover. I'd never made one before but I was so anxious to figure it out, I started experimenting right away. She hasn't seen it yet, so Lela if you like it, Hooray! If not, I can do a different design. It was fun and easy, so no sweat!

It's the "Book Tree." In a perfect world, books... grow on trees, I guess.

Kinda fuzzy, but here is a tiny felt book growing on the Book Tree. If you can read the words and tell me what book it is, I'll give you a prize!

This tiny brown book actually opens!

 It was really fun and easy to make the Kindle cover. You can pretty much do anything with some felt and a dash of creativity! Oh and heat n bond! I LOVE heat n bond! Also buttons..... and embroidery floss. Love it.



Look at these sweethearts! I peeked outside while I was crafting and saw Toothless, the kitty and Charger, the pup snoozing together. Sweetest thing ever!

The Pink Elephant

 Most of you would agree that an intriguing antique store is a worth a visit, right? Well there is this one antique store in particular that is incredibly intriguing! Its called the Pink Elephant and it is in Livingston, IL right off of Interstate 55.  I first saw it on a journey to St. Louis last summer and I promised myself I would stop one day. This past Monday was that day!  What really caught my attention were the HUGE lawn decorations in front of their store. There is a giant space ship, tricycle, man, elephant, and ice cream cone. This place was practically screaming my name! When I went in I realized it was an old school and nearly everything was set up in the gym with booths.

Space ship!

Giant sized tricycle and a giant sized man beckoning to passersby, namely ME!

Hooray for a Twistee Treat!

I walked through aisles of hats and toys and dishes and PURSES.

I loved this bag! This wasn't the one I bought, but isn't it lovely?

Now, I love purses. And I'm not about to spend over $20 on one. I never have and I never will. Why? Because I don't have to. Think about it, you go to Macy's and you find a bag you love and you pay $52 for it. BIG DEAL. Where's the fun in that?! Hooray, you went to a store, found a bag hanging next to a million other bags, and you paid enough money for a weeks worth of groceries. Congratulations. BUT, when you open up your mind to the thrill of the hunt you have something to be proud of... Whats that, you like my bag? Yeah I went to an OLD ABANDON SCHOOL and sifted through DEAD PEOPLE'S MEMORIES and found this purse. Its a Valerie Stevens, real leather, made in 1983. I paid $12. Macy's can eat it. ZING!

Good times, old friends in St. Louis

I'll have to say, this past weekend was the most fun I have had in a long time! My friend, Amanda, is getting married next weekend and so it was time for a girl party, bachelorette style! After some yummy Cheesecake Factory, it was time to shake a tail feather! We rocked and rolled for many hours. I felt those cheesecake calories melt away. As the only completely unattached bachelorette, I was dancing with all the dudes. (Okay not all the dudes, probably about 3 of them.)  It was so weird, because that never happens. I even got a free drink out of the deal. Winning!



Holy smokes, she will be a beautiful bride! I'm so happy for her and Kyle. (Also, I made the veil and sash she's wearing!)



Party Girls!

 We got back to our hotel and had some serious girl talk. I've missed girl talk! We went to see the movie Bridesmaids the next day. I liked it, but there were some parts... I closed my eyes, I plugged my ears. Go see it, you'll understand. Yeesh.

Okay and then I visited KEVIN! Kevin has been one of my best friends since my sophomore year of high school when I tutored him in Chemistry. We made homemade pizza, I met some of his new city friends, and we laughed a lot. I really enjoyed our stroll through Forest Park. We came to the conclusion that Kevin needs a dog and found the exact one he needs, Sheldon the dachshund. These are some of my favorite pics we took!

Kevin got me this owl ring and my nail polish is "Gunmetal Grey" from Avon.

*Bachelorette pics are Amanda's*

14 Inches!

I've actually had this hair cut for months now, but I'm just now sharing. I've been growing my hair out for nearly two years. Let me tell you, it was long! But with my unfortunate hard rust well water that turns the sinks yellow and looks like pond water that I shower in, my hair was mildly unhealthy and wildly unruly. My decision to chop it off was spur of the moment and I knew once I had thought it, I wouldn't rest until it was off. And because it was so long, I wanted to donate it to Locks of Love. On my way home from my Great Smoky Mountain Trip I called my sister and she made me an appointment at her salon. (I have a trust issue with hairstylists and my sister's new cut looked good.) So I prepared to make a leap of faith and trust Main Street Hair Salon in Clinton, IL. Katrina, the roommate, and I got home around 5:30p.m. and my appointment was at 6:30p.m. No time would be wasted!

Look at those long locks!

I didn't have to wait at all at the hair place, right into the chair I went, as the lady asked me, "Are you sure about this?" Was I sure? I thought, Don't ask me that! I'm here aren't I? Just chop it and don't ask questions! She brushed it out, put it in a pony tail and cut. She cut off about 14 inches. 14 inches of me that felt more like saying goodbye to college and an old boyfriend than just losing hair. Immediately afterward, I started to panic. I had to fight back tears even! But my stylist was really reassuring and as we chatted I found out she knows my uncle and her son works where we buy our horse feed. Small world, right?

I'm trying to look calm.

Finally she was finished and I loved it! Never thought I would, but I did. And as I was about to pay, she told me it was free! I thought maybe it was because I had donated it. But nonetheless, it was a nice surprise.
*After photos to come!*

The Great Smoky Mountains!

I have a lovely friend who hails from a lovely part of the country. Meet Brittany from the Great Smoky Mountains! (Now she lives Ohio, but I won't hold that against her.)

Brittany had this brilliant idea to plan a spring break trip to her Smoky Mountains. I thought, now that is some good thinking! And we planned and planned for a darn wonderful trip. What do you suspect? IT WAS DARN WONDERFUL!

We met in Lexington where we got to visit with newlyweds, Ryan and Kendra! And we grabbed Keven and of course Katrina was along for the ride! We packed up and headed for The Great Smoky Mountains!  We were staying in a cabin in Pigeon Forge owned by some family friends of Brittany's. (with a hot tub!) We planned to hike up a Great Smoky Mountain, slide down a Great Smoky Mountain, and soak in the general brilliance of the Great Smoky Mountains! Here are some on the fun moments of our trip!

Keven, "The Newlyweds", and Katrina making ready to start our hike up The Great Smoky Mountains!

Brittany and I. We would not be so enthusiastic on the way down the mountain. YEESH!

This is Ryan's foot print. He was wearing those crazy toe shoe hiking things. Too bad they weren't waterproof. Snow on the trail, say whaaat?!

Climbing to the summit was really tough, not to mention terrifying. But look Kendra, we made it!

Ah, Mountains!

Celebrating Brittany's 21st in Gatlinburg!

Etsy Shop of the Week: FeltLLang

I was scoping around Etsy one day when I came across the sweetest things made with felt. Now I'm a "felter" myself and I cannot help but appreciate how lovely these things are!
Please take a look at FeltLLang!

Checkbook cover!

Cell Phone Case!

Card Wallet!

I Love Lib

I want to dedicate this post to a really fantastic part of my life, working at the library! Now, I never could have expected that I would be making that statement. For my whole life, I had sold my soul to a profession in the medical field. Although after an unfortunate fainting spell in high school where I passed out during a story of a doctor's first appendectomy, (I fell out of my chair onto the floor, it was awful) I had become incredibly squeamish. Therefore I started college with no life plan in mind. I was on my way to growing up with no idea what I would "be" when I got there! I worked in our library at school for work study. And let me just say, you had to be quiet there. Can you imagine being quiet in the library?! Offensive! Becuase of my lib experience I applied at other libs after I graduated.

I started here last May and the differences between an academic library and the children's department of a public library are like night and day. There are colors everywhere! It's loud. There are parties to plan and costumes to wear. It's like God himself threw a bunch of fun things together and dumped it on my head.

We just celebrated a Hispanic books holiday on the 30th of April. Everyone wore flowers in their hair, we had a band on our patio, burritos to eat, and Dora the Explorer was here. You could barely walk around the room for the sea of wee children was sure to drown you. Aren't you so jealous of my job? I knew it.

Dora at the library!

Here's my only reservation. What if I leave here for Kentucky and no libraries are cooler that the one I leave behind? What if we never have a fiesta? What if there aren't seas of screaming children? What if DORA never comes?! Hmmm, it seems as though the best plan is it trust that where ever I go God is just waiting to dump a bunch of fun on my head.

Long time no see!

Hello friends, Its been quite a while since I've been around. So much has happened! First things first, I'm now a college graduate! I graduated on May 8, 2010 and hit the ground running with big plans, a thriving for life only known by a college graduate, and 2 brand new puppies! Lets just say, life after school was nothing like I expected. It's lonely, really really unbelievably lonely. I moved into my uncle's farm house in the middle of no where Central Illinois. My job, in addition to working at the library, was to care for the horses in exchange for a rent payment. Not a bad deal, right? It wasn't really too bad but the fact that I was living alone in the middle of the country was enough to overshadow the whole arrangement.

The girls and I at graduation.

Who would have thought it was so difficult to meet friends outside of school? And if you knew, why in the heck didn't you tell me!? I will say that I was loving the lib more and more everyday! Because of my part-time job at the lib, I've been inspired to a future as a children's librarian! Such a fantastic occupation. I'll get into that more soon.

My roommate moved in with me in October. It was so nice to have a companion to eat dinner with and laugh with and watch Jimmy Fallon with.  Unfortunately, the farm hasn't been a good fit for her and she is heading back home to Michigan and then off to Australia. Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to this summer once again. :(

Despite many set backs, I'm pressing onward with more big plans, thriving for life, and yes, 2 puppy dogs. I'm looking forward to moving back to Kentucky for Grad School in Library Sciences, hopefully a great job, and definitely some friends.