Walking Man

Henry started walking about two weeks ago. Just strolling between furniture. He was wobbly and pretty entertaining to watch. Now there is no stopping him. This week he even braved walking on foreign ground like at the park and at a baby shower. And he can even change directions. It used to be if we stood him up facing a direction, lets say away from the kitchen, he would walk away. Now he can totally change directions and he loves his freedom. It still throw me a little when he walks into a room and he is upright and not crawling. He still crawls when speed is of the essence though but he prefers to cruise along, preferably with a friend like Mickey, a puzzle piece or our neighbor Jocelyn.

Sneak Peek: Table

So when people ask me what I did over spring break I tell them I refinished a kitchen table. Doesn't sound like much but it has been hanging over me as a cloud for 3+ months, so its a pretty big deal. Tonight we're moving it into the apartment after Henry is asleep. Here is a sneak peek at all my hard work. Things learned:

iron on veneer=new favorite product
decades old primer=my new arch enemy

And as a treat for finishing, I bought myself two lime green adirondack chairs and am busting out the paper lanterns.

Miss Nelson is Back (again?)

Henry loves books. I appreciate his love for them. I really do. But I don't appreciate his zest for a few favorites. Here is how a typical day goes:
Henry finds his book of choice. Sees me sitting near and brings it to me. Sometimes he is hindered by trying to crawl and holding it at the same time. He places his hand on the book and them tries to move it forward. This is less of a problem now that he walks.He comes with deliberation. He wants to read that book. He usually comes with mouth open too.Sometimes he is momentarily distracted by the tv but then he gets back on track. He loves Miss Viola Swamp. He will stare at her. I think he is intrigued by how odd she looks. Maybe he likes her exaggerated chin and moles. Then he wants to read it again. Currently Miss Nelson is hidden under the cushion of our ugly chair. Don't tell Henry. It will soon be joined by The Missing Dinosaur Bone and Tumble Bumble.

South Carolina Temple Trip

As a presidency we trekked the three hours to the mini temple in South Carolina. Boy am I going to be glad when our temple is up and running again. Though tiny, it was lovely and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. Like my dress? I bought it at a thrift store for $1.20 and it was too short but had a generous hem to let out. We lunched in Columbia and I fell in love. I will be back to South Carolina.

Read: Gunn and Siriano

Over Christmas break, Steve and I hit up the Tempe Public Library where I spotted Tim Gunn's new book, Gunn's Golden Rules. I loved his style book and thought this would be excellent as well. It is. It is full of humorous stories of the fashion world and backstage from Project Runway. More of an autobiography than a style book. I loved it. Tim is both engaging and astute. He demands a return to manners which I found fascinating.
I love style books. I devour them. I love reading them in B&N, finding them at the library and secretly perusing them at home. I don't think they are always well written but we'll call it a guilty pleasure. I am the same with home decor and DIY art books. Just check me out on goodreads. You'll see what I mean.
So I found Christian Siriano's book the other day at the library and his writing style is hilarious. It literally feels like you are having a chat with him. As silly as it sounds, he put into words a lot of my recent contemplations. For instance, someone commented to me on how they admire my confidence. She stated she wished she had more confidence. I thought about that. What makes me confident? It comes from two things. One, I have a hobby that I love and that brings me success. Not just in that it keeps me busy but that it is a way to make goals, complete them and see positive results. It sounds so simple but it really does add fulfillment to my life and from that fulfillment comes confidence. Its awesome knowing one of my talents that I can totally rock. Another thing he talks about is being fearless. With decisions, be fearless. When you've got nothing to lose, who cares what people think? Of course there are times when you should care and consider all your options but when it comes to wearing a heel or trying a new lip gloss, who cares?

P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Tutorial: Crepe Paper Flowers

When I came up with the idea for these flowers I must confess that it was a mod podge of origami and folded flowers from the internet. They are super simple to make and the perfect thing to do while watching tv. I think these would be lovely at a baby shower or even at a wedding if you had enough of them. (Note: Captions for each picture are below the pictures)

Crepe Paper FlowersYou will need:
Scissors, glue stick, crepe paper. (I made about 300 flowers and barely made a dent in my rolls and these were rolls left over from some bridal shower years ago.)
Cut a square of crepe paper. You can eyeball this, don't waste your time trying to be perfect. You can also cut and fold 2-3 at a time once you get the hang of it, this speeds things up considerably.
Here is your square.
Fold square in half. Hamburger style.
Fold square in half again.
Fold square in half again but wedge style. Or ice cream cone style.
Round the top of your wedge with your scissors.
It should look like half a heart.
Open your paper and you should have 4 hearts that make a flat flower.
To achieve that three dimensional goodness that everyone is after these days (Yes, Hollywood. I'm talking to you.) Cut one and a half of the wedges out of the flower. Leave a small tab to make gluing easier.
Dab a little glue on the tab. And press to the neighboring petal.
See where they overlap? That is where you glued. And it should form a flower like a bowl instead of just a flat piece of crepe paper.
Ah isn't it pretty. You made that!
An extra step which adds more depth is to color the center with a darker marker. Here I used sharpie but for the lighter paper flowers I used washable markers and highlighters.
See, doesn't that look better?
Now go find some branches in your yard. Seriously, thanks for being so lazy maintenance people and piling them right behind my building!
Adhere to branches with a small bit of hot glue (not pictured.) I also looked at some flowering branches online to see how flowers naturally place themselves and tried to mimic that a bit. I also glued them on at different stages of openness to achieve that "oooh some are just starting to bloom look."


P.S. I didn't even try to make myself look decent in this tutorial because I desperately need a haircut and I was also working away at that table I bought and have yet to refinish. Sanding in the sun=sweaty dusty mess. And now I am waiting to head to Lowe's to pick up my stain. Hooray!

The Relief Society Turns 169

Not a milestone birthday but one for me. My first relief society "meeting." Done and Done. I really wanted to do a great job on my first one. There is an interesting dynamic in a new presidency, its like getting all new roommates. You are excited but apprehensive. They look cool but are they total freaks/bread stealers/non dishes-doers/tv hogs/or total dears. Well I wanted to prove myself. I can be trusted. Sounds silly but it ends up saving you a lot of stress if they know you can do it and you know you can do it.

So I did the decorations and then I also made a powerpoint presentation which sounds boring but was actually pretty interesting. Someone read a script while everyone looked at pictures on the screen. I used my trusty digital scrapbooking software to make it pretty. (aren't you so proud, Julie?)
And now I have the month of April off so everyone can attend the Atlanta temple open house. Back to etsy and crafting I go.

P.S. If anyone wants a copy of the powerpoint because you too have a calling in relief society, let me know and I will email it to you. Sharing is always nice. Right?