Paper Love

12,000 pieces of construction paper can create quite an adorable music video! 

Song: Love Is Making Its Way Back Home

Artist: Josh Ritter

Life Lessons

(picture from 2005ish)

Meet Erin. Erin Carter (not to be confused with Aaron Carter, teen pop star). Erin and I met in our sophomore ward at BYU Idaho back in 2003. We pretty much did everything together--this pic is from when we worked for BYUI Event Staff and I think we were working on our "soccer pose."

Anyway, back to the point. I was just digging through my hard drive from school and found a file named "Life Lessons for Spencer" from November 2006 and had to open it. Just a few gems from the document:

Life Lessons, As Prepared by Autumn Winds Apartment #308


Lesson #5: Never swear girls off and say they are dumb.


Lesson #6: Ask out lots of different girls, but ask out girls that could potentially be compatible. Be sure to taste all the flavors of ice cream.


Lesson #7: Never call a girl "home-ly" and A) make sure that she dresses cute, but not too high maintenance and B) date girls who look cute in ALL situations.


Lesson #9: Ask out girls who have goals and aspirations, and who are motivated by things she is passionate about. Make sure she is confident in her potential.


Lesson #11: Don't ask out needy girls. It is good to have down time by yourself.


Lesson #12. Don't date girls that are dumb as dirt. 


Lesson #19: Date girls who have motherly qualities ie. cooking, cleaning, compassionate, first aid skills, etc.


Lesson #21: Never date drama queens.


Pretty profound life lessons, huh? Lesson #12 might be my fave. Oh, and the motherly qualities part. Erin and Spencer ended up getting married that next year. I like to think that Spencer did pretty well at following the outlined lessons :) Good times, sweet memories!

Lots going on these days...headed to Houston next week to spend some time at home. Lots to do between now and then! And our Cards just made it to the World Series! What-what! 

hello.

via Hello! Lucky blog.

Going UP!

I've learned that Claire has good taste in movies. Her all time fave is UP. (That is, unless Katie has "hidden" the DVD, and in that situation, Peter Pan or Cars becomes good enough to watch.) Love Pixar, love UP. My favorite part is when all the balloons float up out of the chimney and the house floats away! I've always wondered what it would take to make that happen.

Enter National Geographic's How Hard Can It Be?

This stuff is for real. The show debuts this fall and I can't wait!



I still have questions, like how did they get it to land? and how did they choose who got to go up? and how long did it take to fill up all those balloons? I guess I have to wait.

Enjoy.

Just a thought.

via here.

ps...I've spent too much time on this tumblr site...love it!

Made Me Laugh

I really laughed-out-loud when I watched this! Enjoy.

Up There

Fascinating.

UP THERE from The Ritual Project.

Take a few minutes to watch. Hand-painted murals are such a work of art! I was in Salt Lake last night, and there are remnants of murals around, but you have to really pay attention to find them--and look up! Enjoy.

via Rifle Paper Co Blog.

Happy Saturday Night

via Your Great Aunt Mary tumblr.

I'm participating in two swaps this year: an ornament swap and an Christmas card swap! I just got the list of people I'll be swapping xmas cards with and looking through all their blogs/sites...holy amazing fun blogs! I always get excited when I find a new blog/tumblr/inspiration site/pinterest site/flickr that I fall in love with--there is sooo much on the web, it's impossible to see everything!

On an unrelated note, the BYU/Utah game came to a disappointing end. Boo.

Happy Saturday night :)

I ♥ the D.I.

And this would be why:
Where else in the world can you buy a tanning bed and a suitcase, furniture, electronics, art, shoes and books all in the same place? You never know what to expect...it's always a surprise! I love the D.I.

Just a little motivation

Maybe I should start my days out like this:Don't be surprised if you walk into my room tomorrow morning and find me standing on the counter, and repeating this little mantra! Love it. (Maybe I should apply this motivation to blogging...?)

Are you sick of listening to the vuvuzela's yet? I'm not super into soccer, but we filled out brackets at work (Brazil threw my bracket! I had Brazil and Spain in the final!), so I've been following the World Cup, but can't stand watching a game on tv for longer than 60 seconds before muting it! Check out what YouTube has done in honor of the vuvuzela:See that little soccer ball icon along the bottom? Click here to see what happens when you click it...

...enjoy.

Happy Wednesday :)

Easy Peasy!

Warning: this is pretty random.

I've wanted to go camping for a few weeks now (not sure why), but the weather hasn't been cooperating to permit sleeping outside in a tent. Maybe sometime soon! Only problem: I don't have my own tent, but hopefully not for long! Poppytalk had a roundup of camping gear and I've fallen in love with this tent:

It totally pops up like those pop-up things for your car windshield! Maybe these pop-up tents have been around for a while, but this is the first one I've seen and I'm totally digging it. No more worrying about breaking a pole. No more worrying about losing parts. All self contained. Love it!

Wanna go camping? Lemme know.

How To Eat A French Fry. By Claire.

The more dip the better! :)

And a cute preggo pic of Katie! :) She was looking so cute in this dress this afternoon...it seems like overnight she grew a cute little tummy!



Thank goodness we had a beautiful day today! The last two days, we've seen snow, rain, wind and hail...craziness, I tell ya! The trees at my complex are in full bloom and it's beautiful. Love this time of year.

BiCYCELS 4 SALE

While stopped at a stop light, I looked over to my right and saw this:I was all by myself and I laughed (out loud), so I whipped out my camera and snapped a photo. (Note: always carry a camera with you...you never know when you'll need it!)

Story time: one of the most important lessons I learned in school was to be more observant of my surroundings. I've noticed an increased appreciation for the little things when I pay attention to what's around me. Sometimes I drive other people crazy because I'll point out the littlest things that I think are beautiful/weird/random/etc. Case in point: tonight on my run with Danielle (shout out!) we went past a blooming magnolia tree and it was beautiful! Naturally, I pointed at it--slightly excited--because Spring is just around the corner! (It snowed this morning here; Spring has not unveiled it's face here along the Wasatch Front.) Then a few minutes later, this little pair of quails ran across someone's lawn and without even thinking about it, I pointed them out to Danielle and she just laughed at me and was "impressed" by my observation skillz. I started laughing, not quite sure what to say except to just laugh at myself and my quirky habit! Please tell me I'm not the only one does this! :)

And one more thing...we (my roomies and me) might be going to the BSB concert this summer...what do you think about that?!

cute.

via kind over matter.

Enjoy.

It's just like a mini mall!




*don't let this get stuck in your head all day like it was in mine.

Random.

Skype. I love it!

I had the lil' miss over the weekend and we Skyped with mom and Sarah...Dad was there, too, but his comfy recliner got the best of him! :) Whenever Claire's over at my place, she heads straight for my computer, and before I can catch up to her, she's either got the internet pulled up waiting for Elmo to turn on or she's got PhotoBooth on and laughing because she's on the screen! Smart little cookie, I tell ya. Oh, and the best news ever: Claire's going to be a big sister! Katie & Joe find out soon what they're having...I can't wait!

...

Britt and I headed up to Sundance on Saturday, figuring that we'd just have a fun afternoon snowboarding on some good snow (considering we had a snowstorm the day before)! I haven't been snowboarding since my Bellingham, Washington days when we'd go up to Mt Baker, some (cough, cough) 8ish years or so ago! I think I was mostly excited to just be outside in some fresh air and hoped that I'd remember how to get off the ski lift without breaking any bones! I think we got 5 or so runs in and totally had a blast! I woke up this morning feeling almost back to normal (5 days later!) To say that we were sore would be an understatement :) We totally got outdone by the little 3 and 4 year old kids on skis who have no inhibitions and fly down the mountain! They're all so cute.

ps...the "snow" was pure ice. Not quite what we were expecting, but we had fun!

...

There are lots of kind people in Provo. I never doubted this, but I was reminded of this fact the other night. While out on a little run in the rain, a lady pulled over and offered me her umbrella! Seriously?! I don't think the thought to offer my umbrella to someone out on a run would've ever crossed my mind. I think I need to work on that. That little Scout phrase, "do a good turn daily" has been running through my head ever since the umbrella incident. Why stop at just one turn daily? Anyways, just a thought. Something I need to work on.

...

On my little walk/jog/runs, my route takes me past a new cupcake shop in town, The Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe. I've tried to hold off as long as possible, but I gave in last night. Dang it. I shouldn't have done it! Different flavors everyday...and I hear that the Nutella cupcake is A.MAZ.ING. Ms. CJane blogged about it here...I picked a s'more cupcake up for myself and a "better than something" cupcake for a friend. Both were most excellent! Check it out.

...

During my blog reading tonight, I came across this picture:

{photo via oil and me etsy shop}

As soon as I saw that picture, I kind of got a little sad. When I was 12, my mom gave me a ring that belonged to her mom, and I loved that ring. It was a super delicate gold ring just like this one, but it had 7 tiny little diamonds on it. I wore the ring everywhere. When it was time to go to college, I decided to leave it behind in my jewelry box because I didn't want anything to happen to it, and I've never seen it since. I would give anything to get that ring back! Maybe I could get this etsy seller to make me a custom ring?? It wouldn't hurt to ask.

...

That's all, for tonight anyways. I'm ready for the weekend.

New{ish} Blog

Everyday I get sucked into my google reader and read hundreds of blog posts on blogs about life, weddings, photography, family & friends, strangers, on being happy, design, art, home decor, quilting, flowers, tech-y things (nerd alert!), scrapbook stuff, DIY ... and on, and on and on! I (without fail) star at least 50 posts daily because there's something within the post that's inspiring in some way to me. I've tried to figure out the best way to keep track of all these things...should I print them out and keep the pics in a binder? I started doing that, but that 1-costs a lot of mullah, 2-it's too much work and 3-I don't have room for stuff like that right now.

Solution: start a blog and compile all these things that I love and find inspiring. It's super basic...just pictures and links to the original post. Simple, right? I think so. I kind of think of it as a digital sketch book of ideas, ya know? The plan originally was to keep it to myself, but a few people have somehow found it, so I figured I'd uncover it...not that it was super secret to begin with. Don't count on regular posts...they kind of come in spurts (like 20 at a time)! Everything has a label, so it's easy to find things. Hope you enjoy! Click here.

I'm going through my google reader and want to add some fun, new blogs...what's your current favorite blog? I need some new ones :)

When Spell Check Doesn't Work

Found on the corner of State Street and 8th North in Orem:
...made me smile :)

Being Crafty

Katie told me last night that I haven't really talked about work too much on my blog...oops! Maybe a little recap of the last few months would be a good place to start! Here's the quick version: back in September/October when mom and I headed back East for a couple weeks, Pebbles was sold to American Crafts, another scrapbook company in Orem. When I came back from Virginia, I started at American Crafts! The last few months were pretty busy getting ready for CHA (the Craft & Hobby Association trade show), but it's been a fun change and to be around so many other talented designers has been so great!

This month at work, we were asked to attend a crop...and for a non-scrapbooker like me, I wasn't sure what to think about attending one of the scrapbook get-togethers! (Side note: I'm often mistaken as being a 'scrapbooker' because of where I work...the truth is that I've never "scrapbooked"...I love the products and think that there are some seriously talented scrapbookers that make art when they scrapbook, but I am definitely not one of them!) I managed to talk Katie into going with me to a crop at the local Archivers last night. Katie printed off some of Claire's crazy pictures and we started on an album! After a few hours there, we maybe got a quarter of the way done and had lots of laughs along the way.


It was funny watching some of the women who were clearly veterans of scrapbooking--the ones who just wanted to get it done and could complete 10 to 12 pages in an hour-- and the other ones who loved to look at all the "cool" stuff that they had in the store and would spend a half hour thinking about how they could use a certain embellishment on their page! I'm not sure what the other women thought of Katie and me, but we probably looked a little out of place, not really knowing what we were doing! :)


After the crop, my friend Heath came down from Salt Lake! Heath and I were friends up at the BYUI and had a fun time catching up! I had all my scrapbook stuff out, so we made Valentine cards and poems for each other...Heath totally put my poem to shame:

I'm glad you're not
a wreath,
or teeth,
or beef.
I'm glad you're my friend, Heath!

(I know that beef doesn't rhyme. Whatev.)

Heath's specialty is ninja turtles, so he made me a ninja turtles card with this lovely poem:

I made you this card for Valentine's Day
So you can take it to work and put it on display.
Love's seed has been planted in soil so fertile
And manifested itself as a ninja turtle.
For this special day you deserve a lovely bouquet
But this is the best to say Happy Valentine's Day!

Awesome, right? The ninja turtles card will be displayed at work come Monday morning! Was your Friday night this awesome??

Nutella...

I know just a few people who'd be happy to get their hands on these single servings of Nutella...



...but then again, maybe not. Sometimes one serving just isn't enough! :)

(via theDieLine)

Those little Heinz ketchup packet dip & squeeze packets are pretty cute, too!