Bachelorette Party Design

Since I don't have time for a proper post, I'll just update you all on a cute new design available in my store. It's a little black dress bachelorette party design. Love it!

The design features a modern edge and shows the bridal gown or dress in front of little black dresses along with a saying about donning those little black dresses and mixing and mingling for the bride's last days of being single! I've also added some new designs in store in the birth announcements and birthday party invitations categories (pool party anyone?). Have a great Tuesday!

Hallway Photo Composition

I have a confession to make: I have thousands upon thousands of unprinted photos. I also have several blank and stark white (minus the dirty handprints here and there) walls. Sounds like a great time to create a wall composition of some of my favorite photos!

One of the largest expanses of my house that remains undecorated is the hallway near the open staircase. I hate walking up the stairs and seeing nothing but a broad expanse of white. Since we're renters here in Germany I can't paint the stairwell, so instead I've created a photo collage.

I think it fills the space nicely. It has a nice movement to it (following the climb of the stairs) and provides a nice bit of interest to an otherwise boring space. It's actually one of my favorite walls now. I love looking back at old photos of all my favorite people: my parents, my boys, my stepdaughter, and my niece to name a few.

Here's my tips for creating a nice collage wall:

I think a composition works best like this if you have something to pull it all together. You can do all black and white photos for instance, or all black frames (like I've done here). Whatever it is, you'll need a unifying element. I've used a myriad of sizes of frames as well to showcase my photos.

You'll also want to use both portrait and landscape oriented photos. I also find that it helps to do a trial run of how you'll lay out your photos. You can lay them out on the floor and re-arrange them a lot easier than doing so on the walls.

Once you find a layout that you're pleased with, start with the middle of the composition and work outwards in both directions. To hang your photos, I recommend turning your frame backwards (the photo itself is actually facing the wall and can't be seen) so that you can tell exactly where that little nail should go in your wall. This will should save you a ton of extranneous divots in your wall. A pencil to mark on the wall is also helpful and easily erased. I've also heard of people putting a dab of toothpaste on the hanger part of their frame then pushing it against the wall where you want it placed, then nailing in the nail exactly where the dab of toothpaste remains on your wall. Easy peasy!

The middle of my layout is a family rules type of subway art print that I created. It's 11x17 (printed on two sheets of standard US paper heavy cardstock) and outlines some of our family values, like "always tell the truth" and "mind your manners."

You'll also want to be careful about your spacing between your frames. Too close and your items will look cluttered and too far apart and you lose that collage feel. Again I recommend doing a trial run on the floor before committing yourself to anything on the wall.

And my last tip: to keep your frames nice and level (there's nothing like a crooked frame to throw off a composition) you might want to invest in double-sided sticky tape squares (like scrapbooking squares). You can place these on the corners of the back of the frames to keep them from moving due to vibrations or, in my case, little hands.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 2

What makes you smile? Well, what doesn't? Smiles come easily to me. Especially when I'm surrounded by those that I love and cherish. I'm blessed with two sweet boys and the love of my life, my husband. What isn't there to smile about? Here's two of my favorite little guys who always bring happiness.

Here it is in color; I had a hard time deciding which version to post.

I had a hard time documenting this week's challenge. For some reason I haven't been taking very many photos, so in my haste I just snapped these on the couch (it's raining outside). I know that there's so many better backgrounds, but atleast this is representative of my everyday life. Sometime snapshots are so much better than all those posed formal photos, don't you think?

Check out more entries over at A Step in the Journey

You Capture - White

This week's theme over at Beth's Blog is white. At first, I was a bit intimidated. White? How do you capture white!? I spent a good bit of time wracking my brain and remembering all the times that I've created coloring pages for my sons only to realize that white's a really hard thing to color in. Then I realized, it's not so hard. White's everywhere around here.

Look up:

Do you see the sea turtle in the cloud too? Or is it just me?

There. See him now? I dunno what happened to his legs.

If you look down, you're bound to find white too.

White means safety in this instance. Well, some measure of it anyway.

Mother Nature has her fair share of white too.

So beautiful they almost look fake.

No clue what these are, but they are extraordinary.

And last but not least, white is in the architecture.

Check out all the white inspiration over at I Should be Folding Laundry.

Top Ten Tuesday - #!@#$ Edition

I recently have a friend remark that I have a, um, colorful vocabulary. Especially when it comes to curse (cuss) words. I have two little ones in the house, so believe me when I say that I try my hardest not to curse or yell anything inappropriate lest they become little mockingbirds. I remember when I was around fourteen and fifteen and I used to curse like a sailor (when out of earshot of my parents of course). Ah, back then I thought many things were cool. I was wrong about most of them, as it turns out. I find that I still have a sometimes penchant for strong words, but I've learned to switch them up. Here's some of my favorite, more colorful phrases:

10. Son of a pharaoh! This is my pretty standard response to when things go poorly, whether I've stubbed my big toe on the table again, or I've dropped the groceries or am just generally frustrated with a situation.

9. Oh for crying out loud...This one is usually reserved for the kids. It's for times when they've left their toys out in the yard again, or they're fighting..again (or still..sometimes it's hard to tell).

8. Well, schnikeys! A nice way to say, Well, crap. I figure crap isn't much better than its four letter S-word counterpart. I definitely don't want my toddler yelling about crap, so whenever I feel the urge to call a situation like the dung it is, I revert to schnikeys instead but really any unusual colorful word will do. You might also try, well, hoodlums! or well, galoshes! or another favorite of mine: well, muckluck! Not sure if that last one's a real word or not but it's loads of fun to say. Go on, give it a go.

7. Flippin' A nice inoffensive substitute for a similar F-word. Used as an adjective. Like, "that flippin' lady just pulled out without looking!" Usually only reserved in extreme cases where I'm caught unawares and have just the briefest of moments to PG rate my dialogue.

6. Good gravy. Good old Charlie Brown gave me this one. Well, technically he said good grief, but good gravy is just so much cooler. A phrase best used to express your particular frustration with a situation.

5. Holy guacamole! Rather than exclaiming that dung or crap is holy, it makes much more sense to claim that a certain green dip is saint-like. Don't you agree? Okay, maybe it makes no sense at all, but again, it's one of those phrases that's fun. I mean, who doesn't like to rhyme?

4. Bozo. A term of endearment for someone who's acting like a fool. This one I stole from my mother. She often reserved it for other drivers on the road, like those people that insist on tailgating or switching lanes without regard for the other cars. "Did you see that BOZO!"

3. Fiddlesticks! Again, an exclamation for frustration. This one I tend to reserve for when I personally do something silly like spill an entire box of spaghetti noodles on the floor.

2. Son of a biscuit-eater! A step up from Son of a Pharaoh. This is reserved for extreme cases of misfortune and I only just catch myself in time to lighten up my foul language.

1. Goofball. Another term of endearment for those acting silly. This one really is pretty harmless though and I catch myself calling my sons goofballs whenever they're in a particularly spunky or goofy mood.

So how do you avoid using the unmentionables when you're around young ears? Any silly phrases? Feel free to share them. I'm always looking to expand my vocabulary!

Linking up to Oh Amanda

Yearly Photos

Okay, I'll admit it: I'm a bit obsessed with photos, photography, editing, and anything in between lately. I recently stumbled across an adorable idea on Pinterest where a photographer had combined some lovely word art along with a photo of theirs to create a unique way of documenting their child yearly on their birthdays. I think it's a great idea, and definitely not your standard fill in the blank baby book page, but a wonderful way to document all those wonderful quirks of your child.

Here's a few of mine that I created (click to enlarge):

Problem is that some of my earlier photos of the children weren't exactly spectacular quality or lent themselves to this task, but I think I did alright. And now I know that on each of their future birthdays that I need to take a great shot with enough blank space to write in their yearly notes. The ones with Lincoln are a bit better in terms of photo quality, I think.

I hope to frame these in 5x7 frames, matted, and line them up, year after year. It'll be a nice way to display just how much they're grown, not only in appearance but in tastes and personality.

If you want to do these on your own, I recommend getting the free software at Picnic or GIMP. They both have a text feature (look for the T in the tools toolbar) where you can add your information. Feel free to get creative, turn those photos sepia, black or white, or even leave them in color. Experiment with different fonts and text colors. You can find some lovely FREE fonts at Dafont. Happy documenting!

20 Week Photography Challenge

Since I've been struggling a bit with my photography (really really really want to take a class or two) and I've been struggling with posts on here, so two birds with one stone: I'm going to join a 20 week photography challenge here online. Woot! I'm actually really excited. I really enjoy the challenges over at Beth's blog so I can see myself really getting into this. It's being hosted by Laura at A Step in the Journey.

This week's challenge is a self-portrait. Ugh. Not my favorite photo subject, but maybe it should be. I have all these wonderful photos of everything else but me. You can definitely tell that I'm always the one behind the camera (the hubby is pretty skilled with a camera too but I rarely let him steal my camera). Here's a couple of shots that I managed to snap rather quickly since there's a couple of people around here that are sick and clingy...



Your standard hold the camera away from you pose



Everyone looks better in black and white, right?

You can find all the information about participating by going HERE. If you do join the challenge, or you're participating in another one, show me! I'd love to see what you've done!