blueprint prints for valentine's day

Jordan Ferney of Oh Happy Day shared these adorable and giant valentine's last week. They reminded me of the customized prints on A Beautiful Mess. So I thought it'd be fun to personalize one or two for the upcoming lovey dovey holiday.

And it really was! A project that I don't have to leave my couch to do, that I can do while watching skiing, heck yes! I did my desaturation to get close to similar levels. The second photo had already been processed through vscocam so I think there's an extra hightened exposure causing the blur there. It was taken the morning Matt and I made the engagement officially, official with a ring and a proposal. 

I didn't go as big as I could, just 18x24". But we'll be moving someday and probably won't get muchg of a chance to hang them. What am I going to do with two 18x24" prints? I'm not sure, but it sure will be fun to see them in person and gift them to Matt.

ps. holy crap! A blog post, a real one, where I actually did something with the cool stuff I saw online. Not original content but something cool anyhow.

write letters

21. write letters / 23. send postcards to strangers

Sorry friends {and strangers}, I promise to do better. I really want to bring letter writing in my life. Do you want a letter? I think I'd love to send you one. Leave a me a comment and I will!

I found this great blog that's appropriately called, Send More Mail. What an inspiration.
There are such great reasons to write letters, the special feeling the person you're sending it to gets, the chance they might write you back and, of course, the beautiful stationery {There are even Projects with stationery.} and postcards and stamps. {Do you think stamp collectors secretly wanted to pick special people in their lives to send their stamps to? To send them out into the world?}

I think a nice set like this from Renegade, Yellow Owl Workshop may be in order.

1/2/25

Hooray for Hooray!

That's original, eh? 

I love Alli's blog because it's beautiful. And because she shares cool Michigan themed things.

Kid Icarus | via Jaime on Send More Mail on Hooray

Michigan tees designed by Amanda Jane

 on Hooray

She also does a fun His/Hers series with Brooke (from Pure & Noble)

hers & his

day beers on Matt's first afternoon off.

one or two?

SPRING OLIVE . $6.50

 

SANDBOX CARDS . $4.50

i went to the eye doctor two weeks ago and i still that have phrase stuck in my head.

it's beginning...

thankful for: my orange boots. [not being afraid of color, wearing five different, solid blocks of color today. maybe too much of good thing.]

yesterday my friend posted some christmas music lyrics on facebook, which interestingly caused a debate that it's to soon to even think about xmas vs. we're so full of holiday cheer we need an extra few days to celebrate. i'm definitely in the latter group. (i love that word, even though (or maybe because) i always go back and reread the latter statement to double check i understood correctly.)


i haven't always been this way. i remember about six years ago being disgusted that they couldn't even wait until the day after thanksgiving to start in on the christmas music. but this year i'm ready for the holiday season already! maybe it's because life moves faster now and i want time to enjoy my holiday decorations. maybe it's because i have my own home to decorate and love displaying my special seasonal items. maybe it's because i decorated for halloween in mid-september and i'm ready for something new. whatever the reason, the holiday spirit bug has bitten me. i'm excited. i won't pull out the decorations until after thanksgiving, but i can dream (and start on/gather little projects) to my hearts content

how beautiful is the christmas scene at lost river modern?

 set up by the lovely couple behind something's hiding in here.

i want to fill my porch with these sparkly tinsel wreaths!

from creature comforts

 oh, hello friend has a great collection of advent calendars.

i love the variety of this one from sperobene

 i love rachel's practical yet still special one too.

what would you tuck away in your advent calendar? 

 

ah, grinning at my finger knitting success.

working on finding the original tutorial, via elsie's beautiful nook (and blog) 

 

speaking of elsie you should probably follow these links too:

christmas eve

christmas magic

they'll surely put you in the holiday spirit!

heart you

heart u

 

heart u

 

heart u

 

heart u

my hearts:

  

inspiration. overload.

This is my first post of the new year. Welcome to 2010 baby blog! :) I thought I'd be blogging more than this, but I guess not, and I guess it's a good thing I didn't make blogging regularly one of my goals for the new year. Not that I've been doing any of them consistently.... but 8 and 2 are going well. rambling.

So I was moving some of my blog links into google reader - probably a good thing I didn't embrace this tool sooner. addiction. - and discovered the blog of one Kelly Rae Roberts, painter of the piece of art I bought for my new house. So exciting, inspiring, lovely. She and curly headed designs (http://www.curlygirldesign.com/) really were the start of this creative inspiration (even if I haven't started creating yet). Nice to find her personal blog sponsoring another blog I follow. and to read of her beginning, whispering inspirations. love.

source 

beautiful trouble as i got sucked into reading her posts. its a wonderful world full of creativity and i'm excited to be exploring it now. i think i'm going to sit down and figure out what it is i want to learn from all of this. i haven't started working on any of my resolutions yet and getting focused will really help that.

I just absolutely fell in love with flickr and finally understand it. Sometimes it takes me to long to catch on. Now that I have... well my inspiration file has grown by 15 photos. Thanks Jodi McKee! Project: I need to make a case for my camera, so I can always have it with me!

source

Looking Back & 10 for 2010!

If you had told me a year ago that I would be living back in Bay City, have bought a house and be working at Delta College. I would not have believed you. Not a chance. I wouldn't have been surprised to be back in Bay City, because I'd made the decision to move home just over a year ago. The rest of it, you've got to be kidding me.

This year has been fantastic. I thouroughly enjoyed the first five months in New York. I wrapped up my time at Corra, volunteered at the ASPCA and The Reading Time, explored the city more, saw great shows on Broadway, and many more amazing things.

Now it's New Year's Eve of 2009. We're about to enter a new decade. I'm going with twenty-x if anyone was wondering ie. twenty-ten. Welcome twenty-ten!! I hope you are a wonderful year! I can't imagine it not being one. That's my style.

Every NYE I tend to get the feeling that it will be a reflection of my year to come. We could go back to 2000 with this, my earliest memory of looking back and saying, wow my year was a lot like how I spent NYE. That will be my post for tomorrow.

I've never been good at making resolutions, probably because I don't keep them. Inspired by other bloggers though I'm going to just that this year.

10 things for 2010!

1. Wear more orange! This is totally random, but as I was picking the color for the title of this orange definitely popped in my head. obsessed. without reason. embrace it.

kotikey

2. Embrace life. Don't chicken out. Put yourself out there. Be strong and laugh loud.

3. Rock the crafty nerd that's inside. The end of the year approached that nerd started to creep out, and why not grab it and have fun. Who knows where it could take me...

4. Take more pictures. With the gift of the camera this should be easy!

5. Keep my home organized. It will be a more peaceful and homey place if you do. Willie wouldn't appreciate choas in her house.

lovelydesign

6. Strip all the wood downstairs and pull the carpets! Restore the original beauty to the house.

7. Create a history of the house to have for the library.

8. Cook more yummy food and be a more focused cook.

source 

9. Compile all of Grandma's recipes for a book with photos for the family, or just have it online. Also finally have EIW journal printed!

10. Get fit! This has been on my "resolution" list since I quit playing basketball at 14. That was 45lbs and 10 years ago. It's time to get serious and get active. (oh that's cheesy) I'm serious though, little steps each day and I can do it. I work 100 feet from a Fitness Center for goodness sakes!

Happy December

We are two days into to one of the best months. There's the hope for snow, the anticipation of beautiful Christmas celebrations, truly wonderful family gatherings and at the end of it we start a new year. The new year is full of possibilities. Let's stay here in Dec 2nd for now though.

Last week I signed up to be a Style School student (see cute badge). I hope that it helps focus my inspiration and creativity, since I have a whole craft room to myself now! One of our early-bird projects was to start saving photos that inspire you:

http://www.pistache.tumblr.com (via weheartit.com)

Originally uploaded by ColorMeKatie

Love. So there's that. Then of course I found something else that I'm totally excited about. 31 Days of Wishes for December. I tried to do days of thanks on facebook but failed, I shall try again.

For December 1st I wish that there had been a glaze of snow to welcome the new month.
Today, Dec 2nd I wish that this pain in my shoulder would go away.

Happy December!

Here I am again!

After a nearly five month hiatus I *hope* that I'm here to stay. I've been obsessed with these crafty, pretty, beautiful blogs that inspire me to be and make crafty, pretty and beautiful things! My first project: (hopefully!) http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/11/10-thing.html. (the trees) love

Also in searching for that link it crossed my mind that maybe I should move my blog to tumblr. That way as I find things I love I'll post them more readily. maybe.

Where I've been: There have been various times I wanted to blog in the time since I last did and a lot has to do with all the changes that have happened. I wanted to chronicle my job hunt & finding the balance of summer fun. I wasn't a very exciting job hunter. I just put my nose to the grindstone every day and did my thing, pretty boring. It worked though and I found a job! I love it! Delta College really is a fantastic place to work. I thought about blogging that, but it is really just a job (no matter how fabulous it is!) and once I got into my routine it wasn't that exciting. Now here it is three months after the successful job start and ... oh wait! There's something else I could have written about. I BOUGHT a house, a house! After looking at something like 30 houses I found the right one. Now I'm there and I'm getting settled in. I might retrospectively blog about painting and settling in.