february flicks

my movie watching pace was a little thrown off this month. one being because it was a little bit shorter of a month, and two because i spent the week in las vegas which knocked out a few of my regular movie watching days. well, here is the list of what i got through - as well as the one movie i saw in theaters this month
what happens in vegas (2008)
my best friend's wedding (1997)
dodgeball: a true underdog story (2004)
life as we know it (2010)
the vow (2012)*
love happens (2009)
to be fat like me (2007)
all about steve (2009)

february reads

i thought i was totally slacking in comparison to last month's numbers read, but then i realized i counted a book from december as well as a relatively shorter read. coincidently, this month turned in to a "book turned movie" month as far as reading goes. i had already seen the movies first, so back tracking to the books meant i was entering a storyline with characters i was already familiar with. all three books were exceptional reads, as well as unique from the movie in their own way. no, i'm not saying the movies were terrible at all. in fact, i quite enjoyed each of them in their own individual ways. in book or movie form, these three reads were not a waste of time for me at all.
the help - kathryn stockett
the notebook - nicholas sparks
a walk to remember - nicholas sparks

weekend wips

there has been quite a bit going on here... well, at least in my brain that is. i'm back and home from las vegas, and had an awesome time! (there will be a picture post on that later this week, don't you worry). in the mean time, there has been quite a bit of best friend-ness on my mind as far as planning and crafting goes for multiple reasons. wedding AND babies, all happening in the next few months! 3 months 11 days as far as the wedding goes, that i know for sure ;) i'm still pacing myself as far as trying to figure out who is actually reading this blog before i go in to detail of what exactly i am doing/planning crafty wise for gifts, so hold tight! here is what is done/happening/in the brain of happening:
erika: that's the bride :) luckily, i have her main wedding present done now so it's currently just bridal shower gifts to figure out. which when i do, those will be more hush hush than anything else. since i've become her maid of honor, it's currently all about party planning and decorating. i have created a party specific pinboard ala my pinterest account here: "think pink". when she first came back to sac and got her apartment with her first roommate amanda, i bought letters for her to spell out her name for her room. they never got used or anything, so now they are in the process of being painted pink glitter to be a bridal shower decoration. i've got a few fun ideas going as far as party favors go, so i'm super excited to see how they pan out :) the two of us will also be making a fabric store trip together in order to figure out fabric for a ring bearer pillow. big plans!
jessica: she's going to be a mommy! i'm super excited for her and adam. i've known her for YEARS - she and i were bff back in the living in rio linda days - and i even photographed her wedding. they just found out on tuesday they are having a girl which means even more fun crafty planning. i started going through my fabric box looking to see what i have to work with for a baby shower gift for her. i have a feeling there is going to be a whole heck of a lot of pink happening in my house for awhile!
side note: i did manage to knock out the birthday gift i was working on in the car that i mentioned last week. it is all done and ready to gift. well, minus the wrapping. i'm still trying to motivate myself to work on my personal projects. but i guess i find that i would much rather do things for other people instead of myself. then they'll get use out of it, and it won't be sitting around in my room for me to admire all by my lonesome. haha. happy monday everyone :)

youtube finds - pokémon the musical

this video has been a favorite for i don't even know how long. i wish i could remember how i stumbled across it, but i can't :/ anyways, it is exactly what the title says it is... pokémon, in musical form.

wordless wednesday

youtube finds - the elevator

let me state it for the record, i adore heather morris. her break out on glee as brittany s. pierce keeps me laughing week after week. this girl has SKILLS. and to think that she got turned down for so you think you can dance? ridiculous. anyways, this find was a little short film she directed called "the elevator"

weekend wips

well, at this point i'm going in to my third day in vegas, and i'm sure the whirlwind has already begun! i started this project off friday night, just so that i would have something to do in the 10ish hour drive. so as far as the photo goes, this is what i did on friday. i can't say much more than that, as it is a birthday present that i have had on my mind for a while and wanted to do before i lost interest in the idea of it all together. sewing machines aren't exactly car friendly, so this little project will have to do. since i'm writing this in advance, i am hoping that i did in fact work in it in the car. happy monday everyone! i'll report back to you next week if i have finished it :)

what's happening: feb 18-22

well, as i mentioned before, i'm heading out of town this weekend for the wppi convention in las vegas. i'm not planning for any katy perry situations to happen, so don't you fear. this girl is still on the open market for all you hunky dudes out there. oh i crack myself up. anyways, here is the general run down of day by day:
saturday: driving. driving. driving.
saturday night: potential for recycled percussion show
sunday: first class at 9am (zach & jody gray)
followed by doug gordon and the photographers ignite bash
monday: kicks off at 8am with jerry ghionis
a little trade show wandering, then it's off to see my girl jasmine star and a favorite of some of my other fellow photographers, tamara lackey
tuesday: breakfast with some of my photographer friends i met last year
a bit of trade show wandering, and then crashing whichever platform classes i can get in to :)
wednesday: a little more trade show wandering, platform class crashing, and then last stop is dane sanders before beginning the voyage home after 4:30
i'm sure i'll take some time to wander the vegas strip with a few people here and there. last year i only got as far as the coca cola store, and even that wasn't too exciting. now the m&ms store, that was pretty cool. anyways, i've got some totally random posts set up and ready to go for you. music, video clips, funny haha pictures. tried to shake things up a bit, but not everything was set to go. i'll be sure to try and post a snapshot collection when i get home :) have a great weekend, and i'll talk at you soon!

wordless wednesday

happy lovey dovey single's awareness day!

yeah, i went there! of course, with my group of friends, every day is singles awareness day for me! no big deal. i'm used to it. i decided to do a mix of things for this valentines day posting. first of all, a valentine's classic. (be my valentine, charlie brown clip) gotta love those conversation hearts!
next up for valentine's day, a little more youtube-ing brings you some of my favorite glee duets, whether romantic or silly. i won't be posting any from tonight's episode though. haven't watched it yet!

lastly, a short little list of some of my favorite lovey/funny/romantic comedy types of movies for you to potentially enjoy this valentine's day. in no specific order:
1. Valentine's Day
2. The Notebook
3. Bridesmaids
4. Crazy, Stupid, Love
5. 27 Dresses
and a bonus if you would like a movie night out:
6. The Vow
I enjoyed each and every one of those movies, and hope you would too. but like they say on reading rainbow, you don't have to take my word for it! Got any exciting plans for this evening with your loved one? Leave a comment below and share all about your excitement!

weekend wips

the first part of all this "technically" should have been bunched with last week's weekend wips, but after talk about four year olds and wedding "woo hoo!" ness, i let it slide on to this week. so a week ago yesterday, i finally took the plunge and chopped up all of the t-shirts from high school to make my second installment of t-shirt quilts. i also realized that my first t-shirt quilt was made six years ago (yikes!) but is still holding up strong on my bed. ever since i chopped them in to front/back halves, they have just sat there... so nothing more exciting to go to that.
next up, i made the veil for the "stylized" shoot i've been planning, but threats of rainy weather have been bogging us down all weekend. saturday night when i came home from the bay area, i also bought supplies for a faux wedding bouquet that was put together yesterday. my mom did the taping, and i did the ribbon wrapping. really, it's nothing super fancy, but it's a good starting place for coming up with idea for future shoots.
other than those project pieces going on, there really hasn't been much happening. up and coming this week i'll be going to disney on ice (thursday) for some toy story 3 fantasticness. no, no children in tow, just me & one of my favorite california friends jenny. maybe i'll find my future husband there. then again, probably not ;) then i head off to vegas (saturday) for the wppi 2012 convention and will be there clear through to next wednesday/coming home thursday. my plan is to queue up some youtube finds and other randomness posts to keep you entertained in my time of absence. there are good things in the works, so don't you fret!

youtube favorites

every now and then, i spend my time cruising youtube for some video clips here and there. of course, there is usually a general theme of them when searching, be it tv shows, music videos, or just random crapola people think is may be funny. well, here are three of my favorite video finds of the week.

happy thursday!

wordless wednesday

the "betsylu" ruby red slippers

on the other side of my life (the photography business side, of course) i have been actively working to put together my first stylized shoot. nothing super fancy or detailed. just a day of shooting a super gal i know who looks adorable in anything. it started with a red cardigan, and with every fabulous girl comes a fabulous pair of shoes, right? well, she didn't have any red shoes, so i took matters in to my own hands. a little help from pinterest, eco thrift & joanns, and my supplies were gathered. five layers of paint later, and these shoes were straight up perfection.
before: you can see the shoes were in pretty good condition. no massive wearing or anything. if i could rock a pair of heels, these shoes would have been totally perfect even without the glittering.
after: i left the heel black for two reasons. 1. because i liked them better that way. gave a little "edge" to them i felt. and 2. because i was too lazy to paint the heel. there, i said it.
as far as the brand of glitter goes... i love it. fantastic glittering without the mess of having to paint on modge podge or fabric glue and then shake glitter on. the dry time inbetween layers was SUPER easy to deal with (about an hour tops) and real easy to clean up. i used the glitter before (different color) when i painted my cap for my college graduation, and i plan to use another color in order to decorate some letters for bridal shower decor.
i've got a few more craft projects up my sleeves to do in order to deck out this faux bride to be, but as soon as the final project is photographed, i'll be sure to give y'all a photo and a link over to the full blog post on my photography page. even better, you can always head on over to the blog by clicking here and add it to your google reader and stay up to date!
glitter brand: folk art extreme glitter by plaid

weekend wips [and a birthday wish]

finally, i have something to weekend craft talk about. crazy, right? well, it has finally come to a temporary end. no no, not the blog. or even my crafting for that matter. but the other wedding project that has been on the blog process since day one is FINALLY complete. well, complete in the sense that i did all i can do with it until it is time to have the binding put on.
the top was pieced together strip by strip until it became a whole front. the back was pieced together yard by yard (and shopped from store to store to get those yardages) so it would be the same shade of orange that was on the front of the quilt. i thought i had bought a big orange sheet, but either i 1. lost it 2. never bought it or 3. was thinking of the sheet i bought for jacob's t-shirt quilt. so much orange going on at the same time, it's pretty hard to keep things straight. this past monday i pinned the layers together after sweeping off the front porch (and avoiding bee stings) and then it got folded up, and sent off thursday to be quilted. by sent off, i really mean my mom took it to jazzercise with her to give to my grandma. i'm pretty amazed at myself. last wedding quilt was pretty close to the deadline... but it's february right now, i pinned it all a week ago, and the wedding isn't until june.
what am i going to do with my time? i'm not entirely sure. perhaps some bridal shower gift making... or there is always a t-shirt or scrappy square quilt i could work on. i may enlist a certain FOUR year old to help me decide which squares should go together. which four year old might that be? well, this one of course!yeah, you get the crazy picture from christmas, because that's the most recent picture i have of you!
you were a pretty awesome three year old. we had some good times together watching princess movies, making foot print butterflies, feeding the cats goldfish. as awesome of a three year old you were, i'm sure you will be a pretty super four year old! happy birthday, lorelai!

green with envy frilly apron

yeah, i know. you're in contact with a slacker here. it's now february, and you're getting the tail end of christmas gifts STILL. well, this one was the one i was holding off telling anyone about while making it. my math skills were put to the test, and i was a regular visitor to a website on metric to inches conversions. that's right. the entire pattern was written in cm, but being in the ol' us of a, we like to use inches around here.after the conversions to inches/yardages and purchasing the fabric, i was good to go. prewashed everything, and then left it there to sit. yeah, it was a little intense to start, considering that i hate doing anything involving gathers. go figure that i picked a pattern that was all about ruffley gathers. but once i got to cutting out the pieces (after more conversions, and the website going down for a day or so) there was no turning back.the instructions were really easy to follow. i only had to make a few adjustments here and there in order for the ruffles to be evenly placed - that could of been because i over rounded when converting - but otherwise, everything was easy peasy. i would advise top stitching the ties and top piece before attatching them. i went the crazy weird way for some reason... wasn't going to do it, but then ended up doing it. i couldn't make up my mind that day. would i use this pattern again? yes yes yes. am i probably going to use it again within the year? absolutely. i love the fun flirty vibe of this apron, and it seemed that the recipient loved it too.
original apron pattern: frilly apron
where did i find it? pinterest, of course!

wordless wednesday