Travels

When I graduated from high school I decided I would make a goal for myself to try and visit at least one new city every year. So since making that, here's where I am so far:


2006:
New York, New York
Glasgow, Scotland
Loch Lomond, Scotland
Ft. William, Scotland
Ft. Augustus, Scotland
Loch Ness, Scotland
Nairn, Scotland
Blair Atholl, Scotland
Edinburgh, Scotland
Dublin, Ireland
Cashel, Ireland
Cork, Ireland
Blarney, Ireland
Killarney, Ireland
Ring of Kerry, Ireland
Cliffs of Moher, Ireland
Shannon, Ireland

2007:
Otto, North Carolina

2008:
Carmel, California
Yosemite National Park, California
Berkeley, California
Alamo, California
San Fransisco, California

2009:
Columbia, South Carolina
Nantahala, North Carolina
Cary, North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina

2010:
Amelia Island, Florida
Portland, Oregon
Hood River, Oregon
Seattle, Washington
Vancouver, Canada
Asheville, North Carolina
McCaysville, Georgia

2011:
Jekyll Island, Georgia
Bowman, Georgia
Dublin, Georgia
Pigeon Mountain, Georgia
San Jose, Costa Rica
Penshurst, Costa Rica
Cahuita, Costa Rica
Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
Quepos, Costa Rica
Jaco, Costa Rica
Montezuma, Costa Rica

Updated with 2012 :
Statesboro, Georgia
Knoxville, Tennesee
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Buffalo, New York
Niagara Falls, New York
Boston, Massachusetts
South Casco, Maine
Scarborough, Maine
Portland, Maine
Freeport, Maine
Limerick, Maine
Bridgeton, Maine
Brunswick, Maine
Conway, New Hampshire
Pine Bush, New York
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2013:
Las Vegas, Nevada
Flagstaff, Arizona
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Oh, baby!

For most animals, spring is the time of birth and I certainly have found that to be true with my friends. In February I went to baby showers for my friends Georgina and Dama to celebrate their soon-to-be-born baby boys!

 

George

3 other pregnant ladies at the shower!

Dama

So much blue!

Both showers were so much fun! The only shower I had ever been to before was one that I actually hosted. So I definitely got caught up with these back to back ones.

Georgina's baby decided to come a little early - so less then a week after the shower we got to meet baby Luke!

so handsome!

I wanted to make something for Georgina that was baby related, but not "too" babyish. I decided she could use a new picture frame to display one of the many new pictures of her little one! I went to Michaels and picked up a frame, some small wooden circles, and fun little white sticker letters. Between my coupon, and teacher discount, I spent about $6! I already had appropriately colored paint and wood glue at home.

I used green, blue, and yellow paints and had to do about 3 coats of each. The paint dried really quickly, which was nice, so by the time I finished painting the 4th circle I could go back and paint the first one with another coat. I let them dry overnight to be on the safe side, attached the sticker letters and then attached the circles, with wood glue, to the frame.

I think it turned out really nicely and Georgina really liked it. When I brought it over she actually had a frameless picture sitting on her desk! It was such a simple project and a cheap way to create a customized decoration that is also functional.

No Child Left Behind

DIY Chalkboard Storage Boxes

I've been wanting cute storage containers for my room for a while now and decided to paint a couple of shoeboxes solid black. Then I was looking at Lemme Make It and Kristin had painted a banner with chalkboard paint. So I figured I could do the same with my shoeboxes. I went down to Lowes and they had a container for $13 (which will last me forever) and so I came home and got to work.

Supplies

I probably had to paint on at least three coats. I would recommend doing your last one (or maybe all three) with a sponge because the paint strokes were very evident on mine. I liked the look but it makes writing on the chalk a little less smooth.

Finished Product

I love them! They live on my bookshelf and look great. I love that I don't need to worry about making new labels if I decide they need to contain something else. Total spent was $13, but my can of paint is still almost full, so I'd say these storage boxes cost less then $1 each!

Beautiful Day!

Today it's beautiful outside! This morning I helped my cooperating teacher put up student artwork for Capitol Art and I've just spent the rest of the day enjoying this incredible weather, eating some yummy food, making a little art, and straightening my room. So far it's been pretty productive but still laid back. I've had music playing at the window's open to this 70's temperature. I'm loving it.

Jub Jub's loving it too

bowl of peaches, strawberries, and raspberries

new creation

I framed some fabric I got a couple of weeks ago and put them up

This has been a really nice day - I can't believe it's already after 5... It's going to be Sunday before I know it... I don't want this weekend to end!

A little attention twards our 16th president

"It is almost always a mistake to mention Abraham Lincoln. He always steals the show."

 - Kurt Vonnegut

sweetheartsinner

I've always been a huge fan of pop art and like artwork that draws from the everyday. Just a reminder that you can get inspired from things you run into daily.

Scatterbrain Ties

President Lincoln was really into seances and his wife held them in the White House.

Aaron Reichart

Straw Castle Design

Lychee Kiss

Anaïs Nin

My baby girl Anaïs Nin

"Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death."

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born." 

Hour Glass Productions

"Life is so fluid that one can only hope to capture the living moment, to capture it alive and fresh ... without destroying that moment."

"I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger as reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls."

Every Little Counts

"Ordinary life does not interest me. I seek only the high moments. I am in accord with the surrealists, searching for the marvelous."

"Oh, God, I know no joy as great as a moment of rushing into a new love, no ecstasy like that of a new love. I swim in the sky; I float; my body is full of flowers, flowers with fingers giving me acute, acute caresses, sparks, jewels, quivers of joy, dizziness, such dizziness. Music inside of one, drunkenness. Only closing the eyes and remembering, and the hunger, the hunger for more, more, the great hunger, the voracious hunger, and thirst."

Persephone Plus

"Passion gives me moments of wholeness."

"For me, the adventures of the mind, each inflection of thought, each movement, nuance, growth, discovery, is a source of exhilaration."

Fire Weed Impressions

 

"I disregard the proportions, the measures, the tempo of the ordinary world. I refuse to live in the ordinary world as ordinary women. To enter ordinary relationships. I want ecstasy. I am a neurotic — in the sense that I live in my world. I will not adjust myself to the world. I am adjusted to myself."

Good Day

I don't really plan on leaving my bed today. And why would I want to when I've got these two in it?

After a pretty rough week - I don't feel guilty for a second of the laziness I'm soaking up today. I've spent the morning enjoying positives. Looking at different blogs, reading inspirational snippets from some of my favorite authors - and from strangers, finding out when I graduate, thinking about THREE upcoming vacations, downloading the newest Real Housewives (Atlanta and Beverly Hills, duh) cuddling with Ginger, hydrating, looking at beautiful artwork and just enjoying the comfort that is my bed. I have no complaints today. Except that slight pounding in my head leftover from an enjoyable night... But with most good comes a little discomfort. Good Day.

Desk

A big personal goal I've made for myself lately is to be able to fit a desk in my room. Normally I think of a desk as being a place to use the computer and I don't remember actually sitting down at one, ever, in my life. Besides during my dorm days, and only because that room was TEENY TINY. There was no other available surface.

Ah back in the day...

Lately I've been getting more crafty though and that is hard to do without a good workspace. And now that all of my roommates are home from winter break I can't take over the dining room table for days while paint drys on various projects... So I've decided I need a proper workspace.

Earlier this week we had four days off of school and my roommates and I pulled my mattress out in to the living room and had a sleepover all week. It was a fun change to fall asleep to old movies every night with my ladies, but another plus was having my bed a little lighter so I could move it around easier. I haven't been happy with my room setup since I moved in (over six months ago...) but thought that I just had awkward furniture and couldn't do any better. On Wednesday I switched everything around and I like it so much better! I still haven't finished getting my room situated just how I want it, but I have a better idea now. AND a perfect place to put my desk!

I've been looking all over craigslist trying to find an old charming desk I could revamp on the cheap, but no luck. But I've gotten inspired to build my own!
The three main things I need out of this desk:
1. To be small and not have a ton of mass - my room is pretty small and it will be sitting in front of a big window
2. To house my sewing machine and other crafting accessories
3. To have a large work surface

Ideas I'm looking at:
Knock-off-Wood's Sewing Table for Small Spaces - I would paint it white and figure out how to make the top storage shelf more efficient. I love that I could roll the whole cart into another room and how it collapses. I'm worried about the bulk of it though...

Sewing Table from Marina Bautier - I think this is the cutest table!! I'm just kind of worried about attempting to build it myself without any plans. Also I'd have to make the bottom rolling cart big enough to fit the sewing machine

A few websites I've been enjoying:
Apartment Therapy
Re-Nest
Oh Dee Doh
The Kitchn

Atlanta

Today is our 4th day of having school canceled due to the snow. Yesterday we ventured out and saw Rabbit Hole - which was really great. My boyfriend, Aaron Eckhart, deserves an Oscar for that, for sure.

I just sent an email to some of my favorite printmakers in Atlanta, Kilroy and Maw, seeing if they hire assistants or interns.

Two of my favorite Atlanta inspired prints by them (I own the top one)

The minute they create a vodka version of this one - it's mine:

I also dedicated a chunk of yesterday to moving around all of the furniture in my room and it feels brand new! I've been hunting online at desks but haven't settled on one just yet... I'm going to get back to cleaning/organizing my room now. Thank god for snow days.

Martha

For Christmas my incredible roommate, Katherine, got me an amazing gift:

It's Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts and it's AMAZING! Just flipping through it is inspiring. I love Martha. And she (of course with the help of tons of staff) has really put together such an amazing set of crafts and easy to follow how-tos. There are so many different things I want to do out of here and out of fear of putting them off I'm setting up another goal list for myself. Twelve Martha crafts in twelve months. Doing 12 crafts a year doesn't seem like that hard of a goal, but I think it'll just help me make crafting a priority.

Here's the crafts I want to tackle so far - they may change though:
1. Block Printing
2. Botanical Pressing - Cards, Coasters, Fabrics
3. Candle Making
4. Clay Buttons
5. Glass Etching
6. Fabric Flowers
7. Nature Crafts!
8. Paper Cutting/Punching
9. Bottle Cap Magnets
10. Silk Screen
11. Tin Punching
12. Sun Prints

Also the examples in the book are usually different (and better) than the one's I found online. I can't wait to get started!

Let it Snow!

Today was supposed to be the first day back of spring semester. But the weather had other ideas...

Last night

A few hours later

This morning

 

Our house

Ginger LOVES the snow!

In Atlanta we got about 5 inches! Huge deal for us. My roommates Morgan, Katherine, and Ammie, along with Claire, Josh, Taylor, and Brandon, all walked down to Grant Park and went sledding! Of course, we live in Georgia where the opportunity to sled is scarce - so nobody owns sleds. We brought two laundry baskets, a rubber made lid, and a seat cushion covered in a trash bag... None of these things really worked but some friendly people at the park gave us two toilet seat's to sled on. As redneck as it was - these things worked beautifully. We had a ton of fun, but it was nice to come home and just enjoy being snowed in. School is closed tomorrow too - I couldn't be happier...

Morgan, Ammie, Me, Claire, Katherine