iPhone Photography

So I know that the pictures I post usually suck because, lets face it, I'm not a photographer. But For Christmas my husband got me something pretty awesome, lenses for my iphone. :)

Via photojojo.com

These were actually on my wish list on pinterest and my husband tracked them down and ordered them for me. Awesome. They are a lot cheaper than buying a new camera, and I don't want to waste money on another camera unless it is an awesome one. Here are a few of my pictures I thought turned out pretty cool.

Hand stamped candles, Macro lens

Husband's eye, Macro lens

Hand stamped candles I made for presents, Macro lens

Profile of my husbands eye, Macro lens

Name tag for my sister-in-law's present, Macro lens

Lemon sugar scrub I made for one of my presents, Wide angle lens

Sewing Machine Macro lens

Sister-in-law's present, Macro lens

These are all unedited, so I think they turned out pretty good, considering I'm not a photographer, and I was using my iphone. Obviously the Macro lens is my favorite, I will need to play around with them a little more and see what results I can get from my telephoto and wide angle lenses. Maybe now I can take some pictures that are actually decent to look at... We'll see.

Post-Christmas, Christmas present?

Oh man, I am so behind on blogs that I've wanted to write and haven't had the time or the energy to do so.  All I can say is, thank goodness Christmas is over. I loved it, but it was by far the most stressful Christmas I have ever experienced. I am still behind on a couple presents that I need to (re)make/fix.

I'm just going to post a short little blog today about these amazing boots that I can't get off my mind...

UGG Channing boot in chestnut

I want them! I've been looking for the perfect pair of riding style boots for a long time, and I think these are them. They are on sale from $295 for $199.90... not sure I can spend that much. My husband did say he was going to take me shopping for boots for Christmas (which he did and I couldn't find any pairs that I liked, thus why I am looking at boots I can't afford online right now). Early birthday/ late Christmas present maybe?

DIY Christmas update

My goal this year was to make almost everything and have everything wrapped early so I could have a cute pile of presents under my cute tree for awhile. It just feels like a waste to have something wrapped for a few hours before it is opened, but it looks like that is what it is coming down to. At least I can say I tried. I am still making a few presents, but for a lot of them I ran out of time and ended up going to the store the other night to buy presents for a couple of my nieces and nephews and some for our annual white elephant gift exchange my family does every year. If only I wasn't full time at work I would have been able to finish all of my presents and then some. Oh well, there is always next year! And now I know I need to start way earlier. It has actually been rather stressful trying to cram everything in to the few hours I have before or after work this week. I am definitely ready for it all to be over so I can enjoy relaxing without feeling guilty. Ok... 2 days left of working my butt off before, during, and after work.  I can do it. My presents may not look this cute, but at least they will be wrapped.

From For The Love Via Tanya on Pinterest

Dinning room table #2

As promised, I am actually posting pictures of the table we made for one of my best friends. She moved into her first place this summer and I wanted to do something nice as a little house warming gift, so I told her I would build her a coffee table. Which then turned into a dinning room table as well when she told me her budget for a table was 200 bucks! Probably reasonable, but I just couldn't sit and watch her spend that much when I could make her a table for less than half the price. So we made a deal and she paid for supplies and we built the table. Had I know that it was going to take us 6 months to finish (due entirely to laziness and busy weekends) I probably would have kept my mouth shut, because she would have had a table a long time ago. It also turn out a little smaller than we had planned because we changed the style of the legs and forgot to make new measurements. Eeek, we just keep learning with each project. Eventually we will have a successful building story... at least I really hope so.

It looks so much better than the table we built for ourselves, it was really hard to give it up. We are now planning on stripping the stain off of our own table and trying to do this grayish stain that I am falling in love with.

I am kicking myself right now because I forgot to take a picture of her coffee table after it was finished, but this is what it looked like pre sanding and staining.

And after all this building, I think we decided our next car needs to be a truck or SUV because this...

... is getting a little old.

My first Christmas tree! (Updated)

Like I said it my last post I have never had my own Christmas tree, and never really planned to have one. My husband and I didn't really liked Christmas trees growing up, and ever since we were dating we had planned to have some other fun alternative. Our first Christmas was a little over a month after we got married and we didn't really have time to think of anything, so we just didn't have anything at all... except for a pile of presents in the corner of our living room. Our second Christmas we were a little more creative and I made stockings and a wreath, which we hung above an old chest and window panel where we piled our presents.

But, it just never did the trick, never felt quite like Christmas so this year we went out and got ourselves a Christmas tree :) (after a lot of begging on my part). And I love it! I have also spent a lot of time over the past couple of weeks making ornaments for the tree, and am proud to say that I made all except two of our ornaments! We have two cats so we didn't want to bother with the glass ones you can buy, so all of mine are cat friendly. Not that I want my cats playing with my tree ornaments, but if they do (like I know they will) they wont make a giant mess and they wont hurt themselves.

I made the star out of a cracker box we had in the recycling bin. Update: Pretty & Cozy  has a tutorial on how to make these kinds of stars. They used cardstock but I didn't have any in white, so I just used some cracker boxes and painted them. The first attempt I did was with regular paper, and it turned out horrible, so I suggest something sturdy. There is a templet available on that website that you can print out. Since we don't have ink for our printer, I just took a ruler and measured the templet on my computer screen and then made my own templet. It was a little difficult to figure out and would be way easier to just print, but I made due with the resources I had available.

Covered styrofoam balls with coffee filters.

The garlands are painted styrofoam balls strung together with beads. Inspired by something I found at a holiday faire.

I hand crocheted "doilies" and sewed them onto a heart that I made from brown linen I had. I made lots of doilies in different patterns. This was inspired by these ones at Ikea.

And last years stockings that I made from burlap and wood letters.

Update: For those who saw earlier, I got a new picture of the whole tree with decorations on it.

The D.I.Y. Christmas is going great so far, although I think I am a little behind.

I'm linking this post up to my first link party! Check out some other bloggers and their DIY Christmas decor!

Just a few improvements

Alex and I moved into our new home at the end of January, so I really have absolutely no excuse for this:

Yep, A whole lot of nothing, for nearly a year (oh except the lovely cat dishes, so attractive right?). I wanted to put a little entry way table there but when I look at any decor or furniture I can not find it in me to justify spending triple the amount I can pay to make my own. And make it the way I want it. Soo, we've spent several months being lazy while this was awaiting us in the garage...

So. much. better. And yes, we made this lovely piece (along with a dinning room table for a friend that will be posted soon, hopefully). We bought pine and stained it to give it an old barn wood look. It really looks much better in person. I'm not even going to pretend I'm an awesome photographer, I took these with my iphone. 

This also gave me a lovely place to hang my wreath that I made last year. I was inspired by one I found  on design sponge. You can check it out for a tutorial, but just to warn you it took FOR.EV.ER. I added some of the berry things (technical name?) I got for super cheap at Joann's and this year I added the little birdie.

We have a few more Christmas decorations up, which I am temped to show, but I think I am going to wait until we have everything up. What I will say is that this is my very first year with a Christmas tree of my own, even though this is our third Christmas together. My husband and I have never really been fans of Christmas trees (I know, I'm a horrible person), but this year I kind of got the tree bug and I had to have one. I was literally jumping up and down when we made plans with some of our good friends to go get some wild trees! Ahh! I'm excited just thinking about it now. Anyways, we got our tree over the weekend, but it isn't totally decorated yet. I'm attempting all homemade decor and presents this year (aside from the Christmas lights). Here is what our Christmas looked like last year, so it can only get better from here on out, right?

The chest was actually completely covered in presents but this is after we opened all of ours up. I think this year will be a vast improvement. Ahh, I love Christmas. 

Have a great week everyone! Thanks for stopping by.

Just a couple things I'm thankful for...

Today I just want to say how thankful I am for my friends, all of them. There are a couple friends in particular that I know, in some shape or form, will always be a part of my life. There have been years where we haven't talked at all, years that we have fought, years that I thought we would never speak again, and then years where I remember that my life would be so different had I never met them. Sometimes we live in different cities, states, and even countries, but somehow our paths have always found a way to meet up.

This is true friendship. Not one that is fake, but one where life pulls you apart and pushes you together and even in the times were you are angry with each other, you couldn't imagine your life without them. 

I just want to say thank you for sticking with me through my personal battles and constant ebbs and flows of life, and helping me grow and become a better person along the way. Both of you mean a lot to me, regardless of what we have been through, and I'm so grateful I met each of you so many years ago.