My 30th Birthday Bash!

 I had a wonderful time at my party on Saturday.  I loved having my friends and family all together.  It made me feel incredibly loved and blessed.  I didn't want  the day to end!

CJ helping put up the decorations.  We got the strings of little blue paper lantern lights at Target.  They were on clearance for $5 a string...so we bought the rest that they had (which was 8 strings).  Mom and I made the tissue paper pom-pom flowers.

My festive back yard!

Blowing out my candles! (No...there were not 30 of them!)

 Everyone just relaxing.

 Mom brought photo albums with all my childhood photos for my friends to look at.

 

Our little family (minus Terra...who was inside)

My friend, Julie, and her adorable daughter, Mollie (with husband/daddy Tim in the background).  I thought they weren't coming, so I was pleasantly surprised when they showed up! (there was some Facebook event RSVP confusion I guess).  Mollie is the sweetest little girl ever!  Most toddlers are really shy around people they don't know very well, but Mollie was so friendly and lovable with everyone! I've only met her once before almost a year ago, and she had no problem coming up to me and giving me a hug!

Tim & Mollie

Alan and Dad hanging out.  Alan and I went to high school together and were in the church youth group together...as well as youth counselors when we graduated.  He was my best guy friend.  It meant a lot to me that he came on Saturday!

Kids (and Rachel) playing the classic "keep-the-balloon-off-the-ground" game! 

30 and still jumpin'! (in a dress!)

 My friends' kids had a lot of fun playing with glowsticks!  I was blowing up balloons and putting the glowsticks in them to make them glow, but it wasn't quite dark enough to see them (and by the time it was dark enough, most of the kids had gone home to bed).  But they all had fun with them all the same!

The party winding down... only Alan, Sheila, my parents, and Grandma were left at the very end of the night, and they helped us clean up.

Thanks to my friend Sheila for taking some cool pictures with my camera as I was too busy having fun with my many friends!

 My family and I being silly and playing with the streamers, pretending it was a May Pole (or a "June Pole"?) as we started taking down the decorations. (it was supposedly going to thunderstorm the next day, so we wanted to get everything torn down that night.  It never did thunderstorm the next day.)

It was a good day.

Instagram Sunday: Boxes of Neckties Birthday Present

So...what did my mom give me for my birthday?...

Two photo boxes full of neckties.

My reaction?...

I was thrilled!

Oddly enough, it was one of my favorite birthday gifts!  I can't wait to start making these ties into things!

Not only did Mom give me the ties (which were given to her by a co-worker), she gave me an idea for a craft to do with them!...mini purses for cell phones, mp3 players, or cameras.  She saw the idea on Pinterest.  Mom and craft show customers have suggested before that I make small, cell phone purses that look like monsters.  And these ties will be perfect!  I look forward to crafting with them!

(The funny thing is that ties that would typically be considered hideous as ties will make the best purses!)

"30 and Beyond" Guest Book!

Okay...you know how a while ago I wrote a post about wanting to have a guest book for my 30th birthday party? (which is tomorrow!)  Mom gave me a half-size sketch book to use for it and I decorated the cover last night.  I spent the last few hours of my birthday having fun crafting!  Couldn't ask for a better end to the day! ;)

 Fold over the top and bottom

 Cut  the corners at approximately a 45 degree angle...

  ... and glue the flaps down.

 Then cut the side corners off at approximate 45 degree angles and glue down

I had written a little poem that I wanted to include on the inside cover...so I rubber stamped it on some kraft paper cardstock and glued it on with some paper button embellishments.

 30 and Beyond! ;)

I'm 30...

So...it's here.  The day that most women dread.  Goodbye 29.  As of 8:30 this morning, I am officially 30 years old.

I can't decide how to feel about it.  Part of me has dreaded it, but part of me embraces it.  Getting older is inevitable...why fight it, right?  (I'm not gonna do that thing some women do and say I'm just "turning 29 again")
Although I don't "feel" 30.  And although I've technically been an adult for over a decade now, I don't feel like a "real" adult.  Most times, I actually still feel 18 (some people have told me I still look it too).  It may run in the family...this feeling of not feeling old.  My dad has been described as being a 15 year old stuck in a 59 year-old's body.  Luckily, I get my young looks from my mom. ;)

Here is a picture of my mom and my squishy-faced newborn self.
(my mom had posted this on Facebook, and one of her old friends thought Mom was me in the picture and that Mom had become a grandmother! LOL!  That made me laugh!  I guess I really do look like my mom!)

Part of why my blog posts have been so sparse lately is that in addition to recovering from craft shows and preparing for other craft shows, I've been preparing for a big birthday party I'm having at the house this Saturday.  So most of the celebrating and cake and whatnot will be happening Saturday instead of today. Today will be pretty low-key for me in terms of celebration.  I feel like I should be doing more since today is such a milestone.  My mom is coming over today after she gets out of work to help me get my house tidied up and prepare decorations for Saturday.  But I'm sure we will pop out to my favorite local cafe for a chai latte (with a shot of espresso).  And maybe get ice cream at the local ice cream shack later when my husband gets home. 

30th Birthday Guest Book Idea

I've been brainstorming for ideas for my 30th birthday party.  Yes...I turn the big 3-0 on June 21st this year and have decided to have a big party at my house.

I've also been reading a creative/artful journaling book I got from the library.  One of the chapters talks about a "guest book" art journal. 

This has resulted in an idea that has been swimming around in my head for the past few days...I want to make a guest book for my party.  And not a typical guest book where people simply write in it...an artsy one where people can draw, paint, and collage in it (as well as write).  And my plan is for this guest book to not be solely for my birthday party, but my 30th birthday will be a starting point for it.  

My plan is for it to be similar to "The Book" my family wrote in at "camp" (aka: the house my mom's family owned in the Adirondacks)...that sadly burned down a few years ago.  I'm not sure why we called it "Camp"...since it was really a house and staying there was much more comfortable than camping.  It used to be a boarding house and had a lot of bedrooms.  So "Camp" was a lot more than a little cabin in the woods. 

After the fire, when we were picking through the charred rubble, seeing what we could salvage, my cousin found the book for my mom (Mom was the one who bought the book in the first place and left it at camp for people to write in).  It was a bit charred on the edges and waterlogged from the firefighters, but we could still read a lot of pages.

And as you can see, we didn't just write in it.  We drew, painted, doodled, and pasted things in.  There was a summer when my family (Mom, Dad, my brother, and me) would bring friends up with us almost every weekend.  And we would "make" our guests write in the book.  We would use the book to journal about what we did over the weekend, and also for lots of quotes and inside jokes that were created while at Camp. Mom's 2 older brothers, my cousins, and grandma would visit and write in the book as well.  

Anyway...

All this to say that I want to recreate my own version of  "the book" for my house.  My house isn't quite as much fun as Camp was (Lyndonville just can't compete with the Adirondacks!) but when my family and friends get together here, fun is definitely had...and we can write about it in a book just like we used to.

My idea for the "title" of this guest journal is "30 and Beyond"...since I am starting it at my 30th birthday party and will be using it beyond that.  I wish I had more pictures to share with you, but I haven't actually gotten a book or started decorating it yet.  I want to just get a sketchbook and decorate the cover. (I saw this idea using Washi Tape today)  Part of me would love to use a Smash* Book...I've been seeing them in the craft stores and have been wanting an excuse to buy one.



It's essentially a scrapbook for the lazy scrapbooker.  But DIYer part of me rebels at the idea of buying a pre-made book (have I mentioned I suffer from "ICanDoThat-itis"?).  But I like that the pages are made with pretty paper.  Oh what to do?...what to do?  There's a cool tutorial I found about making your own Smash inspired book, but I don't have the required binding equipment.  I may just stick with my original idea of using a plain sketchbook and just having all my scrapbooking stuff and art supplies on a table for people to use at the party.  I'm sure my crafty friends will have a ball with it!

My KiraArts Director Chair

Yesterday was my 29th birthday! I got my gifts a few days early, since we had lunch with my parents on Sunday to celebrate both Father's Day and my birthday. One of the gifts I got that I'm most excited about is a tall director's chair with my KiraArts logo on it! My parents bought it at Pier 1 and then brought the back cover to their friend Misty, who has a printing business (Cornerstone Printware), to have her print my logo onto it! (I also got a white T-shirt with the logo on it, since Misty wanted a test first before she printed onto the chair cover. It's a XX-Large, so CJ wears it. He actually wore it when he took me out to dinner last night!)

We set the chair up as soon as we got home on Sunday. It was barely set up for 5 minutes and I turn around and see that Terra has made herself at home!

The chair is primarily for me to use at craft shows...since I can't see people from behind my display when I'm sitting in the folding camp chair I usually bring. I usually end up spending most of the show standing, so I can interact with customers. I don't like peeking up at them from behind the suitcases, so I'll stand so I can talk to them face to face. Then I usually end up continuing to stand so people can see me...which makes my feet really sore and tired by the end of the day. So I am SO glad to have this tall chair now! And it's extra cool that it has my logo on it, and that the canvas seat and back are turquoise! So I look all professional too!

Visiting Grandma: Part 1 (Grandma's Birthday)

My Grandma's 86th birthday was this past Tuesday, and I had decided that I'd go visit her. We went out to lunch with the "Tuesday Girls", Grandma's friends that she's known since high school. They used to meet every Tuesday when they were younger, but now they meet one Tuesday a month.

I bought these earrings for her at the Lilac Festival. They are pressed Forget-Me-Nots, one of Grandma's favorite flowers. Grandma doesn't have pierced ears and wears clip-ons. The earrings I got originally were for pierced ears, but the lady was kind enough to change them! She just switched the charm onto clip-ons for me right when I bought them!

I also made her some Raspberry-Rosemary syrup and some sugar cookies that look like buttons.

I got the "Button Cookie" idea from this site (the cookies on the site there are peanut butter cookies, but I didn't have enough peanut butter). I wanted to do this idea of stringing a ribbon through the holes for the presentation, but wasn't sure if I could do it without the cookies breaking. But the jelly canning jar presentation was cute enough.

And Mom sent Grandma's presents with me to give her, which included this small bouquet of flowers (Forget-Me-Nots, Lilies of the Valley, and Lilacs) from Mom's garden.

Next post: Part 2 (Birdwatching)

Tree Necklace Present

It's my birthday today! I'm 28 years old now. That's only 2 more years 'til I'm 30! Aaarg! I'm getting OLD! Whatever...30 isn't that old. That'll just mean I'll be a "real" adult instead of a "young" adult! But, you know what they say, "You're only as young as you feel!"...and I still feel 18!

This necklace was an early birthday present from my Mom. She's terrible about waiting until my birthday to give me gifts (probably because she just loves giving!). I actually had to tell her this past Saturday when she and Dad came over to celebrate Father's Day that I didn't want the rest of my gifts until today when we go out to dinner. She gave me this necklace a couple weeks ago. She bought it at the Lilac Festival. (I wish I had the name of the artist and/or a link for her website) I like it, not only because it's gorgeous...but because, with the stars, the design reminds me of the tree of Gondor design in The Lord Of The Rings.

Mom's Birthday...

I mentioned yesterday that it was my Mom's birthday...

These were her presents I wrapped. The gift bag is from CJ and I, the others were from my dad, who asked me to wrap Mom's presents while he was at work. (I got her some stuff from BNath & Body Works and Dad got her a bunch of Carpenter's DVD's/CD's) I spontaniously got all Martha Stewart and made that tissue paper flower topper...


I thought it turned out particularly well due to the double sided tissue paper (gold on one side and silver on the other).

We took Mom to Super Buffet (a Chinese food buffet), since she likes it there, but doesn't go very often.

She thought it was just going to be her, Dad, CJ, and I...but Dad had invited a bunch of her friends from church. She was pleasantly surprised, and we all had a lot of fun.

This goth girl with crazy dreads was at the table next to us (it turns out it was her birthday too!). It was funny trying to get a picture of the back of her hair without being obvious. We were pretending to take a picture of Mom. Of course, I kind of wish now that we just would have asked to take a picture of her...I'm sure she would have gladly obliged. She seemed quite nice. She was very sweet and wished Mom a happy birthday before she left. Goths are usually surprisingly nice if you can get past the scary exterior and actually talk to them.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mommy!

Yet another woman who is massively responsible for my strong crafty streak...even though our respective crafty passions are different. We can spend a couple hours in Joann Fabrics together, bonding over our mutual love of crafts. Mom's true crafty passion is cardmaking. I keep telling her she needs to sell the handmade cards she makes, but she keeps insisting she likes to make them "just for fun". (Well, I started making monsters "just for fun" too!) I think I may get her to sell some cards at the Presence on the Patio craft show we're having in the spring.

Mom says she "can't sew", but don't let her fool you. She can do it when she has a project in mind (like the Queen Amidala haloween costume she made me back in 1999...that won every costume contest I entered that year!). She was also very involved in helping with costumes and props for her church's Christmas musical this year. The key is to give her a good idea and a challenge. If you give her a crafty challenge, she can usually pull it off...and I think the challenge and problem solving are truly what she has fun with.

(Mom's senior picture: 1976)

My Two-Year-Old...

My Dad always refers to his 138 pound rottweiler, King, as his "little 4 year old". well, this is my little 2-year-old"! Yes, CJ and I realized the other day that Luna is 2 years old now!


When we got her September 2nd, 2008, she was 9 months old, so we decided that January 2nd was her unofficial birthday. Of course there's hardly a point in deciding on an unofficial birthday when we don't really do anything special...besides maybe get her a new knucklebone. (we're not one of those weird dog owners that have a party for their dog). Plus we always forget about it in attempting to recover from the holidays.

This picture was taken January 4th...when we were having that long stretch of snowfall. The snow was over her head, but Luna just bounded through it like a bunny rabbit! She had a ball!

This is her "Pay attention to me! I need to go out!" face.

Even though she drives me nuts sometimes...I love my little puppy!