sewing 101

In my opinion, hemming clothes is the most basic form of sewing. This practical skill comes in handy when needing simple modifications. I found this fabulous BDG top (a line that Urban Outfitters carries) at my favorite second hand store called Red White and Blue. I go crazy in there! I always find great things and before you know it, I have a full cart and am playing the eeni-mini-mynie-mo game. This last time I walked out of there with 11 items of name brand clothes like GAP, Fossil, Tommy Hilfiger, BDG and more for under $50! Steal of a deal if I say so myself. 

I love the vibrancy of this top but wasn't a fan of how long it was. It came to my upper thigh which in turn accentuated my backside. Here are the simple steps I took in order to get the perfect length. 

Grabbing a pair of scissors, I snipped off the excess fabric from the bottom. Having the plaid pattern helped to make sure that my line was straight. 

 

 I ironed the hem about a quarter of an inch up, making sure that it was on the inside of the shirt. I pinned it in place with a few needles and began sewing.

 Hope this gives you confidence to buy clothes that need a little TLC. Second hand shops are full of unique pieces that can rev up your wardrobe if you spend a little time working with them. Happy hunting!

Kennedy School

 

Merry Christmas everyone! I know it's a bit late, but we've been so busy having fun with family and friends. These pictures come from last nights adventure. Portland's Kennedy School is one of the most unique and creative places this town has to offer. Once an old elementary school, this building was purchased by the restaurant McMenamin and transformed into the ultimate date night. With numerous restaurants, patio area, and a theater converted from the old gymnasium, it's offers everything you need in one place. The walls are covered in mosaics, murals and photographs of the pre-world war students that ad the unique effect. 

We went to the theater as a family the other night and had a blast. We saw the movie RED and cracked up the whole time. The best part of the theater is the fact that you sit on antique couches. Afterward, we couldn't help but meander into the various rooms and snap some photos. I really wanted to peek into the hotel rooms they offer as well, but unfortunately they were all locked. They must of known I was coming!

Anyways, I hope you are all enjoying the holidays with family and friends! Let me know what you are up to, I would love to hear about your adventures. 

Oh! P.S. These photos are taken with our new SLR camera and we LOVE it!

sheer awe!

I'm designing a logo for a friend of mine who is a photographer. After she sent me some specifications of what she's looking for (a stylized tree) I did a little research to get ideas on tree variations. While on my search, I came across this gem

Isn't this custom canopy bed simply fabulous! Shawn Lovell has some serious talent with metal. I can only imagine how long it took to make this. If it weren't for the price and my pinching pennies mindset, I would buy this in a heartbeat.

meet my friend Holga

Holga is my friend. No she is not a foreign exchange student from Germany or Russia. She is my camera. My hubby hub hub gave it to me as a wedding present. Best present ever! I've been wanting a Holga camera for years but never got around to purchasing one. He heard me talking about it a number of times, stored the information away in his brain, and brought it out at just the right time. This is a picture of my hubby and my Holga. Together, I feel the love.

Camera + Husband = Love

Want to know where I got my paper heart? There you go :) I hope you love it as much as I do.

Another thing I hope you love, is the pictures I took with the Holga. It was my first time ever using it and since it's a poorly made medium format camera with a plastic lens, you get some interesting light leaks and overlapping. I can't wait to experiment with it more!

Some of these pictures were taken on our honeymoon at Lake Tahoe, others at the Idaho Blackfoot fair, finding the perfect pumpkin and other adventures. If you have any experience with Holga cameras please let me know! I would love to learn how to manipulate the vignettes and other cool characteristics it has.

Please let me in on any Holga photography tips you have :) and have a happy Friday! Then again... what kind of Friday isn't happy?

when I go home...

I'm gonna check out this little place! Amy Ruppel is a talented artist in Portland and recently opened a store! I love her unique illustrations and colorful designs. She designed this beautiful light fixture. I think it would look fabulous in our apartment. However, I don't think it will survive the plane ride back.

 I'm also going on a scavenger hunt! I'm going to seek out all the shops on this list of must see home decor boutiques. I love adventure and trying new things. But I must admit that I am a creature of habit. When I go shopping in down town Portland, I definitely have my regular stops... Anthropologie, Powels Book Store, Buffalo Exchange... ah my heart is pounding just thinking about them. But I know I must branch out. The Pearl is one of my favorite areas so I know that the list won't steer me wrong. Plus it's from Design*Sponge so I know I'll love it. I'll have to take pictures of my favorite new finds :)

Oh I almost forgot to mention...We now have the delight of hosting H&M! Located in the heart of Portland, H&M is waiting for me to get off the plane and walk through those delightful department store doors and find great deals on fashionable items. For now, it's studying hard, taking finals and praying a get good grades in all my classes. Wish me luck!

i love you more!

It's true. I do love you more. Ha ha ok so there is a story behind all of this. I promise. My husband and I say "I love you" to each other. A lot. I mean why wouldn't we? We are madly in love. Ok enough of the gooey stuff. Whenever he says "I love you" I playfully say "No, I love you more!". Then he reply's with "No, I love you more!" This goes back and forth for a moment. Almost like we are teenage lovers saying "No, you hang up the phone first!" "No you hang up first!" It's quite comical really. 

The second part of the story goes back to the day we got married. We had a DIY photo booth made from vintage doors, a fun banner and a Polaroid camera. That's right! A Polaroid camera. Basically the funnest way to capture moments. Along side the photo booth was a case full of dress up costumes. People had such a great time with it, which is exactly what we were going for.

Needless to say, after the wedding we had tons of Polaroid pictures needing to be showcased. I thought of putting them together in the shape of a heart, framing it, and placing it along side our favorite phrase "I love you more." I'm excited with the way they turned out and I hope you are too! I'm also really excited with the advancement of my Photoshop skills. Ha ha ok don't tease but it took me a while to figure out how to mash two pictures together into a panoramic shot.

homemade candles

One of my Thanksgiving projects was to make homemade candles. I love candles and think they add a nice element to any room.

After rummaging through our local thrift store for vintage tins, I found some keepers. Thrift stores are also full of old pillar candles. So I snagged a few, melted them down, added my own pomegranate oil scent and poured the contents into the tin. Then wah la! My very own vintage style candle. Gotta love DIY.

have a wonderful weekend!

Staying warm here in Idaho is a challenge. We finally got the heater in our apartment fixed. Before we got it fixed, I've kept warm with a blanket and my hubby. Here are some things I've found that inspire, keep warm fuzzies inside and the thought of cold weather out.

Warm colors and unique ideas featured on simplesong. I instantly fell in love with this design blog!

The ALT design summit. Oh man do I want to go! It's only a few short hours away from where I live. If only I had $400 dollars to go and no school to interfere. Anyone want to sponsor me to go? The speakers sound amazing and the networking would be amazing!

 

This article featured on Oh Joy! and pretty much everything else on there I love. Maybe it's the soft, romantic colors that make me forget about the Idaho cold.

Enjoy the weekend and find ways to stay warm!

giveaway!

My talented friend Sarah is doing a giveaway from her Etsy shop! Fall in love with this beautiful blackberry necklace and get your chance to win it!

Don't miss out on this unique necklace!

hand type

No, your eyes do not deceive you. This is a hand rendered lettering of the font Baskerville. One of my favorite fonts, it has a classic style with the hanging 'g' and a variety of weight between thick and thin. I didn't use any tracing paper to copy the letters, or even type out what it looks like on the computer and see the spacial awareness or height of the letters. All proportions were estimated from observation, lots of erasing and measuring. I was fairly close to the original for not having copied it.

I fell in love with type in my first Typography class. The class was a tough one with a hard to crack teacher and the task of memorizing 50 fonts by sight and the class they belong to. Needless to say, I learned a lot about type along with my love and appreciation growing. One of my favorite parts of the class was experimenting and creating our own type. The object was to create a style of font that embodies a word. Here is mine.


What do you think? Does the thin, dirty strokes embody the meaning of poverty?

guest bedroom

Finally I get to redecorate my high school bedroom at home. I'm not joking when I say, it looks like high school exploded in there. Pictures from dance team, sashes from court, you name any high school recognition stereotype and it's in there. I love going home for the holidays, but it always felt like a time warp going into my room, and I felt like a high school-er again. With the final "Ok" from my parents, my sister and I have decided to redecorate it in yellow and gray. I can't wait! It will be a wonderful project to do together when I come home for Christmas. I'll be sure to post some real before and after pictures. But in the mean time, here is some inspiration that we are going off of.

Thanksgiving projects

I am so excited that Thanksgiving is around the corner. It will be a great time to relax with my husband and do some projects that I've always wanted to. I'm a DIY girl. I love projects. I think this will be my next one. I'm not a huge fan of real taxidermy, but I think ones like this, made out of paper or cardboard at interesting texture and dimension to walls.

I have a strong feeling this sewing display will be made too! I Pretty much want to make everything from Design Sponge. I'll be sure to post any finished products! Happy weekend everyone!

wedding invitations

I love invitations. It presents a challenge to get all the desired information in a limited space. All the while, trying to make it look good. My first invitation was our wedding. It was so fun to design, yet a little stressful at the same time simply because I had so much on my plate to begin with. We decided to go with an embossed ink which gave it a classy texture. I love how you can represent your style through a simple piece or paper.

In the image above, you can see the embossed texture really well. So by now you might have realized that I love birds. I just had to put these cute little love birds (that I designed myself) on our invitations. These little cards were placed in specific envelopes, inviting people to our sealing. Here is the complete set (minus the picture we sent). Our engagement photos were done by the fabulous wedding photographer duo, Chad and Rebecca Hansen.

I loved making these invitations and would love to help you with yours. If you are in need of wedding invitations, birthday party invitations, business cards, or want a print made to hang on the wall, feel free to contact me. I would love to help you create something special.

home sweet home

While searching through my usual inspirations, I came across a fabulous photographer in Portland. My heart ached for home when I saw the gray fall skies set among fabulous clothes and the beautiful city scene. Amy Nieto  captures it all. I can't wait to go home for Christmas! Walking through the door to see the garland wrapped around the stair banister is the image and inspiration getting me through finals. In the mean time, I want to share a bit of home with you.

fashion+nature = portland

Ok, yes, this is a toy horse tied to a real horse ring. These little horses are all over Portland. The Horse project was started by a man that wanted to incorporate art in the community. It makes for a fun scavenger hunt or a shocking double take if you've never seen one before.

found alphabet

I've decided to start posting more graphic design work I've done. Many people have asked me if my work is online. Sadly I said no. That is, until now! This was a project I enjoyed so much. My objective was to find letters in common objects. Without creating the letter, but rather manipulating it's shape or direction, I was able to create a whole alphabet. The fun part is, it's all made from jewelry! Raiding my jewelry box and my sisters, it wasn't hard to find a variety of textures, shapes, sizes and colors. The letters were found in necklaces, rings, earrings and more. This adds interest to the alphabet and an element of surprise when you realize which letter it is. Have fun singing your alphabet as you go through mine!

center stage poster

This is the poster I mentioned in the previous post about having worked with the campus event and media services. The symphony was beautiful and was an honor to create a poster for them. This is the first of many graphic design projects that I will post. If you like my work, give me a call and I would love to work with you on any graphic design projects.

AfterEffects

While on my search to expand my networking, I came across a blog of a fellow graphic designer I had the privilege of working with. Back in winter semester of 2010, my graphic design class worked with the University Communications Department on campus to compose posters for upcoming concerts. Tony Carpenter oversaw the project and gave me a great opportunity to learn how to work with a client and art director. The best posters from each event were chosen to present to the head art director of BYU-I, where he would make the final decision if the poster was used or not. I was ecstatic to be chosen to present, even more ecstatic to be the final poster chosen and see my poster in print all around campus and town!
Anyhow, that is how I know Tony. This is a video he made and posted on his blog. I absolutely love it! It inspires me to learn AfterEffects. Guess I better get started!

infatuations... continued

5. The Apothecary's Daughter... on my kindle.
Ok, so it's not really MY Kindle, just a rented one from the library. I've always been partial to having a real book in my hands, what with the feel, smell and the joy of turning each page. But I must say that the Kindle is an experience of it's own. The sleek design and feel in your hands makes you feel cool. And important :) Now, enough with the kindle.... and on to the book. The Apothecary's Daughter was recommended to me and I'm so glad at that! I haven't finished it yet but the intrigue, suspense, love triangles and well developed characters make this a must read!

6. zumba class
I'm one to get restless with work out plans. I love to run, but if I do it too often without any variety, I tire of it quickly. I found some exercise classes near by and Zumba is my FAVORITE! It's a high energy, cardio work out set to Latin music. Many Latin dance moves are thrown in, but by the end you'll find your heart rate up and and a sexy swivel in your hips.

7. custom jewelry by Truly Sarah
I LOVE these one of a kind pieces. My beautiful and talented friend Sarah Onken makes all of these by hand, uses real precious stones and metals. I had the honor to wear some of her jewelry for a photo shoot and had a great time. Check out her etsy shop and buy some pieces! They would make great Christmas gifts for someone special.

8. urban outfitters online apartment sale
Pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. This store has one of a kind prints and details on home decor items. Although my poor married college student budget, doesn't fit full priced items (not that I can ever get myself to buy things at full price anyways), I've found that UO has great deals! Check it out and see what treasures you can find.

refinishing furniture 
Go from drab to fab with with a little time, paint and a sander. This piece found at the salvation army store for $30 has become quite the home accent. I've been having my eye out for unique pieces like this one, but with little luck. Once I do, I'll be sure to post something about it. In the mean time, check out how this DIY furnishing woman did it. 

10. trying new recipes
To keep things new and exciting, I enjoy trying new recipes at least twice a week, if not more. I enjoy the challenge... and of course the finished product! Sometimes I find a gem of a recipe that I use it over and over. This banana crumb muffin has definitely made the list of favorites. With it's perfect balance of banana to bread ratio, heaven in my mouth is the outcome. Not to mention the brown sugar crumble on top is divine. With Halloween just over and Thanksgiving around the corner, my husband is having me cook everything pumpkin. I've been having fun trying to make pumpkin desserts. Try it! You'll be amazed at all the options besides pumpkin pie. Happy Baking!