Discussion / getting help:

0

December 31, 2010


So this is a little on the more personal side but it's something that has been going on in my life so I thought I'd share it with you guys. I have had a lot of anger issues, mainly about my childhood and my dad leaving when we were young. I guess you could say we grew up in an angry family, lots of yelling and screaming, which I thought was just normal until talking with some friends and realizing that yelling & screaming at the ones you love isn't so normal. Recently the anger seems to have surfaced much more now than before and it had really taken it's affect on my relationship with Nick and my family. We realized we couldn't get through this alone and it was time to seek outside help. We met with a counselor at our church who was able to give us some recommendations 

At first I was a little embarrassed .. and maybe ashamed. Feelings like.. I don't have it all together, what is wrong with me? I can't let other people know that. I have to keep up this image... But I wanted to share this with you because I've gone to a few sessions now and I have made such amazing discoveries that I never even knew! Realizations about why I think the way I do, why I am stuck in these feelings and emotions. Where the root of the anger comes.

I was just wondering if any of you have How long do you typically go for? Is it different for everyone? 

goals:

0

December 30, 2010

- host a 'my house is clean' party
- host a clothing + accessory swap party
-

CRAFT GUIDE 101:

0

Type your summary hereType rest of the post here

my twenty ten:

0

loved this post by tabitha emma, so thought i'd follow:

http://tabithaemma.com/my-twenty-ten/

Merry Christmas:

22

December 24, 2010

Hope you are all in a beautiful, cozy place.

All your decorations are out..

Perhaps you are having a white Christmas..

Did you get a tree this year?

Hopefully you have your tree decorated with love and family surrounding..
via frolic

& you're warm + cozy with a cup of hot chocolate.

Don't you love giving gifts? (and receiving too)

Eat a cupcake or 2 for me.

and maybe these are some things we can live by in 2011.

2010 has been lovely, but I'm excited for 2011, what about you? Well my friends, I'll be taking a little break from blogging next week. Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed time with your dear ones. See you in 2011!

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
- Isaiah 9:6

our first Christmas cards:

36

December 23, 2010

Photobucket
Our first Christmas cards as newlyweds! As much as I wanted to make diy Christmas cards this year, I really had no time. So when I got an email from Night Owl Paper Goods about a sale on holiday cards, I decided to go with that. plus, I really love that these are printed on wood. Plus they come with a 2011 calendar printed on the back, so useful! (I'm all about calendars this year I guess) They had so many nice designs, Nick liked this one the best though :)
Photobucket
Photobucket
I designed a wrap around Christmas label for the envelopes but didn't get to take a picture. We got out of the hospital on Monday and I ran to the post office to send them off. I'm not sure if this will be a yearly thing for us, it kind of took me a while to get them together and I didn't even make them! (unlike Melanie's cute felt cards, which I'm sure took her a lot longer!) hehe. Did you send cards this year? I'd love to see pics if you blogged about it!

ps: in response to the comments below, I sent them in regular A6 envelope's (that I had leftover from the wedding, sweet!) and the postage was only .44 cents :)

product package design:

23

December 22, 2010

One of my favorite classes in college was package design, we had an awesome teacher and the projects were super fun. I'd love to design product packaging all day long ;) I think product packaging is a really important element in design, what do you think? Here are some nice product package designs I found: most are candles/soaps -- they really have good design!


designed by yeongkeun via lovely package

Moulinette Soeurs Eau De Parfum at anthropologie


designed by Peg and Awl via lovely package





Photobucket
James Boyce via Cambria Cove

various soaps from anthropologie
1, 2 , 3 , 4

diy with Brittni:

10

Hello, hello! Its Brittni from papernstitch. And I am back with another original tutorial for you all this week.

Instead of the usual diy roundups, this week I'll be sharing a brand new, original tutorial I came up with for a feathered barette that has made its way into heavy rotation lately, when it comes to hair accessories.
Here's what you need to make your own: silver tone french barrette hair clips (you can pick these up at any craft store or on amazon; all purpose craft glue; feathers

Here's how you make it: 1. Apply a very thin bead of glue down the length of the top of the metal barrette clip. If you accidentally apply too much glue, use a q-tip to remove the excess. 2. Choose your sturdiest, thickest feather. And use that for your base feather. Apply the feather to the top of the barrette and use the pressure of your fingers to press the feather down until the glue holds on its own.

3. Wait for it to dry and then apply your second feather, working out from the center. 4. Repeat step four with additional feather until you've achieved your desired look. Pro tip: If any area looks a little sloppy once finished, apply one small feather with glue on top of the messy area to cover it up.

5. Wait for everything to dry completely. And you have yourself a brand new feathered barrette. Great for the gifting season as well. Here's what the finished product looks like...

About Brittni: She is the founder of the handmade exhibition site, papernstitch, and is also the editor of a handmade blog, by the same name. When not working on papernstitch, she is dreaming up fun little tutorials and crafting projects for her home. If you love DIY as much as Brittni does, download a free copy of the Happy Holidays Guide to DIY eBook, packed with eight step by step tutorials for the season.

weekend trip to the hospital:

43

December 21, 2010

Photobucket
*pics posted with my husband's consent ;) he's so cute!

You know how I was supposed to go to Renegade SF last weekend? If you follow my twitter, you may have known that didn't end up happening. What did happen was around 1am on Friday, well, technically Saturday - Nick started getting bad pains in his stomach and so we decided to go to the ER.

Our original plan was to leave for SF at around 8pm, get there by 4am and sleep for a couple hours. Instead, we came up with a weird/crazy plan of going to sleep early at 8pm, waking up at 2am and driving to SF to arrive in time to set up for the show. The 2nd plan was crazy but I know the Lord was really watching over us through it. If we had left at 8, we would have been on the road when Nick's stomach started hurting. and I wouldn't have known where to take him!

Anyway, they released us from the ER at around 4am and Nick said he was feeling better and that we should still go to SF. I really wanted to go but I was concerned about him. We prayed about it and I just felt like we needed to stay. At 7am, Nick's stomach pains were back and they were worse. We went back to the ER and they gave him a CT. It turned out he had a bowel obstruction. I hear these are quite common but his pain was really awful. He was throwing up and it seemed like the pain would never end.

We were praying praying praying. I asked friends + family for prayers. Praying for Nick to feel better, praying that he didn't need surgery. By Sunday he was feeling better and they kept us in for observation. We got discharged yesterday afternoon and I was so glad for my husband to be home.

So we thought we were going to have an adventure in SF, we ended up having a hospital adventure instead. It was a long hard weekend. But I am grateful Nick is better. I've never seen him in so much pain before. Thank you to friends + family who prayed for him. The Lord is good and I believe He really watched over us through this entire situation. Sorry to anyone who came out to Renegade, I got some emails + tweets about it. I was bummed about not being able to make it to SF but of course my husband's health comes first. My aunt said that there will be many craft shows, but I only have 1 Nick ;) so true.

a (free) pocket calendar:

124

Photobucket
UPDATE: 133 addresses have actually been received. Sorry friends, free calendars are all gone! You can still get a calendar (semi-free) if you want one, read the info below! :)

I designed these pocket calendars a little while back and just got them in the mail! I decided I'd offer a little holiday cheer / pif (pay it forward) and send 75 100 of these out to my lovely readers, free of charge! That is, if 75 100 people even want one ;) Want a calendar? Just leave a comment on this post and then go to this form and fill out the information!
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket
Calendars will be mailed out as soon as possible, just in time for the new 2011!

Free calendars are now all given out! If you still want a calendar, there are 2 options for you! Option #1 - You can get one by sending me a SASE! (self-addressed stamped envelope) Send a sase to: oh, hello friend | po box 1134 | la habra, california | 90631 or Option #2 - If you don't want to send a SASE, just pay postage cost of $1.00! (sorry friends, was .50 cents but paypal fees are outrageous and I was only getting .19 cents after fees!) Use the buy it now button below:








Calendars are also available to international readers too! I'd just need the postage costs, $1.50! If you'd like one, click the 'buy now' button below, be sure to leave your correct mailing address!






happy friday / stamps:

21

December 17, 2010

Photobucket
I've been working on some rubber stamp designs and hopefully will be ready to sell them by January. I made stamp packs to sell at all the craft shows I've been at, stamps are so much fun ;)

Happy Friday sweet friends! Any plans for this weekend? I am sure you are all busy getting ready for Christmas. Me? I still need to buy gifts! Yikes. I've been so busy with craft shows, this month has just passed me by. A bit sad, but it is my busiest time of the year for shows. This weekend, I am off to Renegade SF, my last craft show for the year! Hope you'll stop by and visit if you're in the area! See you on Monday! xo.

diy with Brittni:

4

Hi everyone! It's Brittni from papernstitch, and I have something exciting to share with you all today... Just in time for Christmas (for those that are celebrating). This tutorial is actually a part of my free eBook of holiday diy projects (eight tutorials in all) called The Happy Holidays Guide to DIY, which you can pick up right here if you'd like.


But anyway, back to today's project. I am going to show you how to make this adorable NOEL letter block holiday decoration. Its a fun and easy project that you can get the kids involved with, if you’d like. You only need a few supplies and the finished product is oh-so-cute. Of course, you can create whatever saying you’d like here. This is really customizable for any phrase, name, or holiday.

Here’s what you need to make your own: 1. ABC wooden blocks 2. metallic sharpie paint pens 3. craft glue (optional)
Here’s how you make it: 1. Decide what message you would like to create with your wooden blocks. Grab each letter and put the blocks in the proper order, face up. 2. Shake your paint pen according to the directions and begin filling in the boarders and letters for each block. 3. Wait until blocks are completely dry and apply a second coast if necessary. 4. Finish them off by painting the other sides that are not yet painted in a solid color of your choosing. I used the same two colors (silver and copper) for all of my wooden blocks. 5. At this point, if you’d like to glue the blocks together to create one, solid piece, now is when you should break out the glue. Just a few dabs on the sides that will be touching should so the trick. No need to overdo it. Personally, I like to keep my blocks free, so I can re-arrange them whenever I’d like.

Gift Idea: An entire A-Z hand-painted block set would make for a wonderful gift for a child during the holidays. If the blocks are left unglued, kids can create their own messages.

About Brittni: She is the founder of the handmade exhibition site papernstitch, and is also the editor of a handmade blog, by the same name. When not working on papernstitch, she is dreaming up fun little tutorials and crafting projects for her home. If you love DIY as much as Brittni does, download a free copy of the Happy Holidays Guide to DIY eBook, packed with eight step by step tutorials for the season.

on my wishlist:

16

December 16, 2010

I am thankful and blessed that there's nothing I need this year, I have everything I need and could ever want. This is just a list of some extra things I wouldn't mind having ;) What's on your wish list this year?

Tall Draper's Cabinet from sundance catalog

Joya & Vane Solid Perfume Lockets from anthropologie

Or buy it handmade! Single Note Solid Perfume from For Strange Women

triple time watch from sundance catalog
I have a thing for wrap bracelets / watches. I love them!

Happ & Stahns Perfumers Eau De Parfum from anthropologie
I would want this just to display, because it's so gosh darn pretty and clever!

magic trackpad from apple
(this would be a nice accessory too)

pretty much anything from Mademoiselle Chipotte all her products are so amazing, belgium vintage is legit ;) love this antique date stamp!

Love the Rustic Wall Organizer & Cubby Organizer from Pottery Barn. Wouldn't mind the cute accessories from the pictures too!

Photobucket
pretty sweaters from anthropologie or jcrew, yes please!