My Top Five Photos of 2011

Hello as the start of the New Year I'd like to wrap up 2011 with some of my favorite photos. Unfortunately 2011 was not a great year for pictures as the camera on my cell phone quit working about 3 months in. I also have a Nikon D40 but I was too afraid to carry it around in my everyday purse. However both of those tiny problems are fixed. I recently purchased an Iphone and cannot stop taking pictures and my boy Gunnar bought be a wonderful camera bag from JoTotes for my Christmas Present. So I am looking forward to all the beautiful pictures to be had in 2012. 

One of my favorite pictures this last year has to be of my new niece. I was able to offer my sister a photo shoot of her and Lilly. The pictures turned out great and it was a wonderful learning experience.

This is another great photo from this last year. This is a picture of Gunnar we found an old playground and spent the afternoon like little kids climbing on the monkey bars and sliding down the slide.

This picture was taken when Gunnar and I took a lunch picnic date to a little pond near our house. We fed the fish, turtles, and birds it was incredibly relaxing and gave us a great memory.

My grandparents celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary this year. I was lucky enough to be in attendance and snap this cool picture of their cake.

This was taken in the lobby of the French Lick Hotel and Casino this past week. The restoration they have done on the building took my breath away. It is beautiful and full of history a great place to go visit.

I hope you have enjoyed looking at some of the images that I am most excited about from this past year.  It is day two of 2012 and I am well on my way to some great pictures for this year. Thank you all for stopping by.

After Christmas

My Christmas was amazing this year. I was able to spend time with family and friends. We watched a marathon of Christmas Movies and then we played games. I think one of my new favorite traditions with my mom and aunt at christmas is having a glass of wine while we finish wrapping the presents while watching White Christmas.  I know I have been trying to get away from just blog posts that update where I am and what I've been up to but I'm so excited about this I want to share. I was inspired over this Christmas. I had time to look around and check different things out and I think I came up with my first DIY Idea for this blog. I hope this is the first in a long list of many ideas for DIY.

As for Christmas some of my favorite gifts to give this year were the gifts I made. My dad who is an endless source of inspiration for me graduated with his college degree in 2011. I was lucky enough to take the trip to North Dakota for his graduation. I took lots of pictures while we were there and for Christmas I put it together in a scrapbook so he would always have the memories to look back on. 

The other gift I put together was for my sister. I had a little help from Blurb with this gift. My sister gave birth to my niece on October 17th 2011. I was lucky enough to spend most of her first month with her and was able to gather a great number of pictures. I put together for my sister a book of all Lilly's pictures from her first month. She was very touched by this gift. 

Here is  my niece at one month with her Mommy's baby picture on the left. I am so lucky to have such a great family and to make so many wonderful memories with them. And look two posts in one month. I hope this trend keeps on going!

Have a happy NEW YEAR!!!

Christmas Preperations

Ah, the end of a long week and the beginning to another weekend. We have big goals for this weekend and week to get ready for Christmas. We need to get last minute gifts and bake our winter treats. I'm excited that presents are showing up under my tree.

Merry Christmas everyone!

The 10 things I love about FALL!

Fall is a wonderful time of the year the weather is cool so I can wear sweatshirts, so many holidays are on the horizon, and Saturday's snuggled under blankets are a favorite pastime. I love all the colors of clothing, accessories, and even nail polishes that make appearances this time of year. Not to mention all the smells that come from fall cooking. I put together a list of ten things I love about fall that I would like to share with you.

10. THE AUTUMN COLORS

         When the leaves are changing the world is painted in the beautiful colors that appear every autumn. Deep reds, honey yellows, plums and oranges all add beauty to our planet. These colors signal the oncoming of other fall favorites.



9.    PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES

                 My biggest splurge is on Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Sadly they are already discontinued in the stores but I got one at every chance. Now I have something to look forward to for next fall.



8.  PUMPKIN PIE

             The rich creamy goodness that is pumpkin pie; is there anything else to say? This dessert goes with everything ham, turkey, snack time!


7.  SCARVES

             Since the weather has turned chilly a nice warm scarf is just the thing to keep you cozy. I found a tutorial for a scarf that I'm dying to try. The tutorial is from organizeyourstuffnow.com and the end result is super cute.


6.  PERFECT TEMPERATURE


                Fall offers the best of both worlds not too hot and not too cold and you get the chance to break out all your adorable warmer clothing. My favorite fall outfit boots, jeans, and a cozy sweater.

5.  FOOTBALL

              In my family football has been a big event on Sunday's, Thursday's, Saturday's... I guess everyday that there are games football is on the TV. We watch everything from College to the NFL. Football time is more family time and a great chance for some rocking snack food.



4.   HALLOWEEN

                 As one of my top 3 favorite holiday's of the year Halloween is so much fun. I love the decorations, the movies, the creative food and the costumes. This year I dressed up as a gypsy wearing all pieces that came from my closet. It was fun to pull together a Halloween costume from stuff I already owned.


3. HOT CHOCOLATE

            Who doesn't love sitting under a warm blanket sipping a nice hot chocolate with marshmallows. This is a wonderful treat that I start in the fall and continue into winter. There is nothing like warm melted chocolate to make your day cozy.



2.    CRUNCHY LEAVES

                  When the leaves have all turned their beautiful colors and have fallen to the ground. I absolutely LOVE walking through them. They are the equivalent to jumping in rain puddles for me. I love the sound and finding especially crunchy leaves is rewarding.

1.       KICKING OFF THE HOLIDAYS

              Fall is the start to the holidays. Homemade food and family time are just two reasons to love the onset of fall! I can not wait for Thanksgiving so I can watch all my favorite Christmas movies.

Take some time to think of some things that you enjoy about this time of the year. I really hope you enjoyed my top 10 things I love about fall.

Tea Party for a Baby Shower

Its been a wonderfully relaxing weekend after spending almost the entire month of October traveling on the weekends. I came across this wonderful blog that I am now obsessed with. Its called A Beautiful Mess.... and it is awesome. It has inspired me to not only discuss design on my blog but other facets of my life as well.

Some of my topics might in the future include cooking, photography, web design, video gaming, fashion, beauty, and art as well as other DIY projects I have undertaken. So for this post I'd like to show you the tea party baby shower I just threw for my sister. Thanks to all of those who helped and supported me.

 Here was our beverage bar. We had hot water and tea packets so people could choose their own flavors. We also included lemon water and hot chocolate as alternatives.

Our food was pretty simple a few different types of finger sandwiches...

 ...flavored popcorn...

 and sweet treats including: tea cookies, maple pecan scones, and chocolate cupcakes.

 The bunting on the gift table I made from string and paint chips it turned out to be the perfect addition the the decorations.

I hope you all enjoyed the pictures it was as much fun as it looked.

Milestone

Today I think I reached a milestone in my journey. I was looking around online at other people's illustrations and something clicked. I know how they did that. I know what I have to do in Illustrator to make that happen. It was incredibly exciting to me and I wanted to share it with everyone. I think I am getting closer to creating a project on my own rather than creating from a tutorial.

Also I'm really enjoying Google+. If you haven't had a chance to check it out you should. It has already proven useful to me. I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

Illustrative Lettering

Recently I have come across some really talented typographers who create illustrative letters as design solutions. So my current project that I'm laboring over is new business cards with my own illustrated letters. I had been using free fonts from online as a place holder and when I replaced the holder with the letters I had created it felt way more polished and finished to me. Although there is still some major tweaking to be done and its not close to going to print but I am enjoying the process.


If anyone knows of any resources like videos, blogs, or tutorials for illustrative lettering please comment below. For anyone who is interested check out the Session by the Tuts Plus network on Illustrative Lettering.