Mixed Up Inspiration - A Tutorial of Sorts.

This project has been a long time coming. I bought the supplies in September of last year, then got caught up with making Halloween costumes and then Christmas snuck up on me. So, I just now got around to working on it.

My daughter's room has been pretty much complete & cute since before she was born. There was just one area I haven't really been satisfied with. And that would be the wall space above her bed. I used to have a heavy wood & metal flower hanging there. It quickly came down once we started using the crib. I've been wanting something to replace it with ever since.

I got my inspiration for this project from the cute hanging wooden letters that are so popular right now, and 'bubble' stickers for the walls. I couldn't use those when I decorated Kelsie's nursery because our walls are heavily textured. I love the look though and really wanted to incorporate those two ideas in her room somehow. Which leads to the project I am about to show you!

Starting off with the supplies: A canvas, wooden letters & circles, paint, and glitter.



I then painted the entire canvas green.



Then I painted the circles and wooden letters. I sprinkled the letters with glitter when the paint was still wet so I could get the glittery effect without using a ton of glue.



Then I simply glued everything onto the canvas & hung it on the wall! So simple!



I had to hang it higher than I'd like to keep curious hands off of it, but I'm still really happy with it!



- B

Photography & Me.

I love photography! It all started when my daughter was born. I wanted to have newborn pictures done and took her to a chain photography studio. I was completely unimpressed with the results. I started dressing her up in cute outfits at home and taking pictures. I liked mine much better than what I got at the studio, even if I was lacking the quality due to having to use a point & shoot. Fast forward a few months to my birthday and my husband bought me a DSLR! Hooray! :)

I looked to local independent photographers for inspiration for backdrops, props, etc. and found one that I love. I aspire to take pictures as well as she does someday, even if only for personal use. She's awesome. I take my daughter to her for milestones, holidays, etc. I still use my DSLR at home when I dream up an idea & want to practice. I have a great model at my disposal. :)

Here's some of the portrait work Koppi Write has done for me:











Great work, right? And here is some stuff that I've done myself:
















As you can see, I still have a lot of learning to do. But this is definitely my new hobby. :)

Hey world. It's Brittany. What's up?

I've recently started couponing. Yes, my inspiration was the TLC show 'Extreme Couponing'. Those people are intense. I am a total newb. I'm still trying to figure out how to double coupons, or rather 'stack' them. Gotta learn the couponing lingo. My first trip to the grocery store with coupons was a nightmare. I just clipped coupons for things I was going to buy anyway, went to the store and long story short... ended up saving a whopping $14.

That's not awesome. It's clear that I still have a lot to learn. I should be reading sales papers before I go. And finding coupons to match those sales to get maximum savings. I also need to figure out which, if any, stores in my area will let me 'stack' coupons. And if three different stores are having amazing sales, I need to be willing to go to all three different stores. It sounds like a lot of work to me.

I just saw Julie & Julia. Was that a subtle subject change? They are loosely related. Couponing = Cheap Food. Julie & Julia = Movie About Food. Whatever. I wanted to see this movie way back when. As you might imagine, or might not, I haven't had many movie viewing opportunities in the last couple of years. I just decided to make use of my Netflix subscription and I'm catching up on lost movie time.

Back to Julie & Julia. I wasn't impressed. I obviously never read the book, but it was just ehhh. I mean, she never even got to meet Julia. The ending was very anti-climactic. Actually, the whole thing was anti-climactic. I'm not a movie critic or anything so hopefully my little opinion won't offend any of my, like 4, followers. I just got Easy A and Inglourious Basterds in the mail. Perhaps I'll share my two cents on those after I watch them.

I've also been trying new recipes lately. (Food on the brain, ya think?) I tried one the other day that was fan-freaking-tastic. I found it on 5dollardinners.com. It's a chili casserole. Just Yum. I also attempted a new version of potato soup that I found on the site. I got all of my ingredients during the above mentioned shopping trip. I pulled out the bag of potatoes and sat down to peel them... and the potatoes were rotten. Fudge. So, that recipe will have to wait until I get a (fresh) bag of potatoes. I'll let you know if it's delicious.

Valentine's Day is coming up. You know what that means! Chocolate! And I'm on a diet! So, no chocolate for me. But I do think I want to make these sugar cookies that I saw on HowDoesShe? I think my husband would get a kick out of them.



They're awesome, right? Lingerie cookies! A little risque... or as much so as a sugar cookie can get. You can find the tutorial here.

I think I'll end on that note. You gotta love a post entirely about food. :) Until next time! -B

Fail.

I have been MIA for like... a year. My bad. You see the post below featuring a photo of my fat self? Yeah, I'm even bigger now. Epic fail. But now I'm committed to losing the weight for real. Seriously, I have about 50 friends who are along for the ride too! Talk about motivation!

We're doing a 'Biggest Loser' style challenge right now. I've only seen a couple of episodes of the show ever, but I get the gist. I'm not posting another before picture though. But, I'll still post pictures periodically of my progress and of course my awesome 'After' picture.

So, more to come from me. I'll try to remember to post more often. And about more than my weight loss woes. I know that can be tiresome for anyone who isn't myself. :) Since this blog is also about being a mom and all facets of my life I will do an update on all of that later. I just thought I'd get this post out there first.

Shape Up!

I am going on a diet. No, wait. You're not supposed to call it a diet. I'm going on a lifestyle change. Errrrr... right. So, I just had a baby 3 months ago and I feel like that gives me the right to be a little chunky! But, do I really want to be chunky? Uh, no. I want to look like a Victoria's Secret model! Is that ever going to happen? Probably not.

I am a very curvy girl. The smallest my body will go to is a size 8 and that is skin and bones. A size 10 is the perfect size for me. So, I have 4 1/2 sizes to lose. How am I going to get there? I know, I know! I'll sit on my butt all day and eat fast food! Oh, wait... That's what got me here. I'm not a very active person. I used to be, but now when I'm active I get out of breath really fast. And I hate that feeling. So, my reasoning is if I don't push myself too hard, I won't lose my breath, so I will feel good. Um, but look good? Not so much.

I'm trying to find a lifestyle change.. plan.. thing.. for a lazy girl. A picky eater. A very busy new mom. Does anyone know that plan?! Anyone?? Mmmkay.. Sounds like I'm going to have to create this lifestyle change-plan-thing-whatever on my own. This should be fun...

This is me now. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a slimmer, more fabulous picture in the future.

My first 'mommy' project

Since having my daughter I have discovered my crafty side. It stems from my need for my daughter to look ridiculously adorable at all times. I've been buying things like hairbows and flower clips in my quest for cuteness. But then I discovered tutu's and how very expensive they are. I had to have one but I couldn't justify spending so much on them. So, I did some research and realized that not only are tutu's really easy to make, but you can make one for under $5.00 worth of materials! Below is a picture of my daughter in the first tutu I made.





It's a little too long, but I can afford to keep trying until I perfect my technique. I mean, I can make six tutu's at home for the price of one from a boutique. I may post a tutorial when I make my next tutu so others can learn to make them too.

Let me introduce myself...

Hi! I'm Brittany. I created this blog a year ago and forgot about it. Now that I have my daughter I decided to use this as a fun way to share little glimpses of my new life with family and friends. Since most of my time is spent with my daughter I can't promise that I'll be updating this very often. And since all of my typing is done one-handed, as is everything when you have a newborn in one arm, I can't promise that my updates will be very long. Or error free. It's hard to type with one hand!


-B