Category Archives: Life

New Year, New Start

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Why hello everyone!

It has been months since I have blogged. Months. Which is just awful, but I think you all understand that time slips away sometimes… especially in the months before the holidays.

Anywho… I’m back! I can’t say I am going to be a stellar blogger and post multiple times a week because then you would just be disappointed in me. I will just continue to mosey through the world of blogging and see where it takes me :)

I have some exciting news! In 2013 I will be traveling to Disney World as well as to Europe. To say that I am over-the-top thrilled would be a severe understatement. It is all I think about, all I talk about and certainly all I dream about.

Well as I have been thinking about this upcoming trips, I started to wonder how will I ensure I never forget everything about these trips. Both are with family (Disney with Brett’s and Europe with mine), so they are going to be memorable. I used to be an avid scrapbooker years ago, but now I just find it so hard to decide which pictures I love most out of the thousands I took. And then find it hard to scrap that event before I am already faced with a new one. So for most things, I have moved on to hardcover photobooks, but that is a post for another day. The reason I bring up scrapbooking is because I loved it for all the memories I could store. I am that person that has drawers full of tickets and receipts and pamphlets so that one day I can look back on all of the great things I did. With my upcoming trips, I wanted to find a better way to store all of those little things, along with some pictures and some journaling. Ultimately I found K&Company’s SMASH books and fell in love.

If you don’t know what they are… watch this little video…

They are just beautiful notebooks that you can do whatever you want with. For me… travel journals! Here is the genius thing, they come with a pen that has a glue stick on the end of it. That way, you don’t have to wait until you get home or back to your hotel to adhere something. Seriously amazing, right?

Well Brett me got two for Christmas, one for Disney and one for Europe. He also got me some of the accessories that go with it. There are fun little pockets and tags and little knick-knacks to personalize it. You can check out all the fun little things on their site! I have found their products at Michaels and Target and they are really well-priced. But really, can you put a price on preserving memories? I think not.

I immediately wanted to start “smashing” but obviously I have not gone anywhere yet… so I started with all of the pre-planning things, such as hotel reservations, places we wanted to see in Europe, park hours in Disney… that kind of stuff. I will be doing some posts on the pages I have done so far at some point soon! But to get you into the “smashing” mindframe, watch this YouTube video of this girl’s Travel SMASH book. It is the stuff of legends, really.



Enjoy :)

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Halloween Costume Ideas

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I can’t believe we are already halfway through September…however that does mean Halloween is right around the corner! I love Halloween! I am especially excited for it this year though because Halloween was “cancelled” around here last year. Yeah cancelled. This is why…

Yeah.. we had a crazy snowstorm in October that did some serious damage. We didn’t have power for about 10 days. So unfortunately for all the kids around here… Halloween got cancelled because it wasn’t very safe out. So this year… I’m going full out with the decorations! More about those to come..

However… today we are going to chat about costumes! My mother always either made our costumes or found really adorable ones..

Here is me and my brother Tim… I mean, come on… he is in a little baby sized suit. Could it be any more adorable? Actually it could… here is my most favorite Halloween costume picture ever…

How is Greg almost 19?!? He needs to be this adorable again. I can never get enough of that picture!

Well I have some fun ideas for Halloween costumes to share with you  from Spare Time Treasures :)

What about a Disney Princess?

{photography via Bayou Belles Photography}

Maybe a variation of your favorite flower instead?

{photography via Beemer Photography}

Another springtime staple… a Ladybug, perhaps?

Or if a headband isn’t her style… a clip to match!


{photography via Oak Hart Images}

Or maybe she is seeking an adventure as a pirate!

{photography by Portraits by Katie}

Just some ideas to get your creative juices flowing! Let me know if you have any questions about the costumes featured above or on our Facebook page :)

 

 

WVU in the Family

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Growing up in Massachusetts… I never thought that West Virginia would become such a big part of my life. Four years ago my younger brother Tim decided to go to West Virginia University. Now, four years later he is a graduate and my youngest brother has started there. As I mentioned in this post about Tim’s WVU graduation… I really love visiting down there. It is just really beautiful and so much fun. I know that Tim had an incredible four years there and now Greg is doing just the same. I even put together a WVU graduation party to start the fun for him. Now that Greg is down there, I hope to visit soon. I have great memories of visiting Tim over the years…

 

I know I will also have a great time visiting Greg at some point as well. We took this picture before Tim’s graduation to start our pictures at WVU together…

Actually one time, Greg and I took a road trip to visit Tim and decided to make a documentary of our travels. It is hilarious. Well we think so at least…

Well, recently I stumbled across 1Canoe2 and their beautiful state letterpress prints. As I was looking through each state, I found West Virginia and knew that I needed it. I miss both of my brothers terribly as Greg is in West Virginia, Tim is in Massachusetts and I am in Connecticut. Regardless, we are all still incredibly close. This past weekend, my father and Tim went to WVU to visit Greg and to catch the first football game of the season… so I figured this post would be fitting as I just got my print in the mail from 1Canoe2! Into a frame it went…

 

I hope everyone has had a great Labor Day weekend! Enjoy what is left of it!

 

 

Office Inspiration

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Brett and I decided that we needed a little bit of an office makeover the other day… Nothing is wrong with the office but it is just… there. It is just there with a brown and tan color palette. I was going for an old world vintage thing but ended up with a sea of brown. Needless to say, it needs a little something.

There are many things I love in the room…

The map pillow in the back is from Ikea and fit the look I was going for. The pillow in the front however is really special to me. It is made from fabric my mother used to make herself a dress when she was pregnant with me. Plus, it has polka dots so clearly I’m sold.

This chest has proved itself to be quite useful. It holds some odds and ends but most importantly our printer. I rarely have to print anything so it stays stored away!

I have lots of fun decor in the room already including this canvas I made from old vintage stamps. Here is the tutorial to make your own!

As you can see… there is a lot of brown. An office should inspire you, I think. So I have set off to find some inspiring rooms to get the gears working!

 

Love does not even begin to describe Katie Bower’s Office. I love how fresh and bright and colorful it is. I don’t know how Brett would feel about such a color palette but I’m sure he would go along with it. I think this office is unexpected but truly just comes together seamlessly. I love everything Katie Bower does… but this is certainly one of my favorites.

This desk from Crate and Barrel is gorgeous. It looks old and could be very versatile depending upon the decor you pair with it. But, at $1500… I won’t be purchasing it anytime soon. I bet I could get Brett to make something like it though…

This DIY desk for two from Young House Love is actually exactly what we need. I need either two exact desks to pair next to each other or to build one continuous desk for the two of us. Everyone likes to have their own space, right?

This shelving from Martha adds some color to the room. You could wallpaper or stencil some Ikea Lack shelves for the same look! Organization and design? Couldn’t be better!

Well for now that is some of the inspiration I have found! Hopefully I will have some updates for you soon and we start to tackle this room. Let me know if you have any spectacular office ideas :)

 

 

 

Favorite Places to Shop for Home Decor

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I wanted to share with everyone two of my favorite places to shop for home decor online. Two of the best places I have found are Joss and Main and One Kings Lane. Both of these sites feature marked down sales that last for a few days. The items can range from rugs and furniture to quirky home decor items. Everyone likes to feel like they are getting a good deal, so its fun to look around these sites. Plus, I have found some really fun items!

My most favorite recent purchase was a metal wire ferris wheel sculpture from Joss and Main. I had fallen in love with a metal ferris wheel sculpture at the Grand Floridian in Disney a few years ago…

Seriously in love. Then a few months ago, I came across this ferris wheel from Pottery Barn…

 

It is no longer available but at the time it was over $200. For a ferris wheel? Certainly not something I could justify. Then someone answered my prayers and there was a metal ferris wheel on Joss and Main for $30! Yes! I could not contain my excitement! Here it is now on top of the bookcase in our office…

While it is not as hefty as the other ones… I still love it just as much! Such a fun purchase. I also recently made a more useful order at One Kings Lane. They had a set of two vintage-y wire baskets. I’ve been on an organizing kick lately, so at $15, I was sold. I like when everything has its own place!

Bigger one to hold recent mail… and smaller one to hold some towels in the guest bathroom…

 

They look old and worn… just how I like it! I have bought other fun goodies on these sites but these were two of my most favorite purchases! Check these sites out because their sales change every few days! These sites are Member-only so use the links below to join :) One Kings Lane gives you a $15 credit when you sign up! How great is that?

https://www.onekingslane.com/invite/megangomperts

http://www.jossandmain.com/invite/sparetimetreasures

Let me know if you purchase anything fun!

 

 

 

 

Just a Little Break

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Why hello! I haven’t blogged in a few weeks as Brett and I were on vacation and just trying to grasp to the end of this summer weather… which as of yesterday had us with tornado warnings. In the Northeast… that is not very common, at all.

I do have some DIYs and recent purchases I want to share with you guys but first I thought I would just let you know what I have been up to! Our recent vacation started with exploring Hartford, Connecticut. There was a jazz festival going on and they have an old Carousel… so of course I was sold. What can I say, I am a child at heart.

A few days later we went to Newport, Rhode Island for the day. Brett’s mother took the trip with us which was really nice. I hadn’t ever been to Newport before so I was overly excited. So many great little shops. I was determined to find a little trinket to take home but I didn’t have much luck with something I was in LOVE with. So we headed to the water…

 

Really beautiful, huh? I found some sea glass and some small shells which I was excited about! I have a project that I will share with you guys closer to the holidays that these little sea treasures will be perfect for. It is how I remember what fun things we did each year :) Be on the lookout!

After getting back from Newport, RI we trekked to my parents house on the South Shore of Massachusetts. The best thing about going home is that it always feel like home. I wish I was closer sometimes but I am only a few hours drive away. I feel lucky for that. While I was home, I had the absolute joy of seeing some of the most influential people in my life. Before I moved to Connecticut last year, I was a dance teacher. I’m pretty sure I will never find a job I loved more than that. I was so lucky to be able to teach so many incredible students over the years. Really words don’t do it justice. However, there was one group of girls that I began teaching when they were in 1st grade and I was in middle school and starting as an assistant teacher. Well I ended up teaching them pretty much every year after that (minus when I was in Florida for college before transferring back up to Massachusetts). These girls are now graduating high school or juniors and seniors. It is really crazy to me that they are this old. It is probably how a parent feels… when they watch their children grow up right before their eyes. Well long story short, I was able to meet up with some of them for ice cream after not seeing them for a year. I am so lucky to still talk with them often. They really impacted who I became growing up.

The picture isn’t the best quality as it was taken with an iPhone and it was super humid out. But the pictures make me so happy… even if they are all taller than me now…For all of you that were not there with us, I miss you more than you know!

The next day Brett and I went to Provincetown in Cape Cod. What a fun place. So beautiful and really eclectic. My parents went with us which was great. I am incredibly lucky to have parents that I can look to as friends.

We had the most incredible breakfast at this little place called Edwidge… It was so good…

We also were strolling along the pier when a boat came in with a gigantic tuna. I had never seen anything like it… It created quite the crowd.

 

Yeah… crazy. Overall we had a wonderful vacation and it was good to get out of Connecticut and work for a while. But now I am back and excited to show you some of the projects I have been working on.

Anyone take any time away recently? Go anywhere good? Let me know!

 

 

 

DIY Clay Flower Vase {inspired by anthropologie}

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I’m sure you have all seen these vases from Anthropologie…

I adore them. I was perusing Anthro recently and of course spotted these. They are beautiful. Brett thought I was crazy when I was trying to come up with a way to justify spending close to $30 on one of these bad boys. However, let’s be honest, we all know I wasn’t actually going to spend that kind of money. I knew I could make something similar for a fraction of the cost.

Naturally I headed to Pinterest. Whenever I want to tackle a project I know nothing about… Pinterest gives me the push I need. I found some great tutorials from people who had the same thoughts I did. I really enjoyed reading what they did and figuring out my plan of action.

A few weeks ago on a trip to Ikea, I purchased this planter…

As you all now know from this post, I don’t have much a green thumb so I had plans to use this as a vase instead. I decided this would be the perfect vase for my clay flower project!

And off to Michaels I went! Brett was with me as we were out running errands which of course he was just thrilled about :) I found the clay aisle and then came picking a color… I wanted to go with a blue or yellow but I hadn’t quite decided before I walked through the door. Hilarious side note… as I was picking a color, Brett of course was giving me a hard time telling me we would have to buy a pottery kiln to bake the clay, which of course panicked me and had me reading the directions on every brand as he disappeared to another aisle. The second he left some little old lady came up to inform me that he was wrong and you could indeed bake it my kitchen oven. So of course a joke from Brett ends up with me looking like a total amateur. Very typical ha

I settled on Sculpty Premo oven-bake clay in yellow! I bought two small 2 oz. packages but ended up only using one… that means there could be another clay adventure in my future…

The process was really simple. I just tore small parts off and used my hands to flatten the clay. Then using the back of a butter knife I formed petal shapes in a variety of sizes and added them to create a flower. The best trick I found was to fold the bottom of each petal together to help mold it into a flower shape.

Then I bent the edges up a bit to make it look for realistic and baked it according to the directions. For this type of clay it was 30 minutes at 275 degrees. After it baked, I used some Gorilla Glue I had on had to adhere it to the pot and let the glue dry… and voila!

I was THRILLED with how it came out. I immediately texted my mother a picture (because what adult doesn’t do that??). This was really very simple and I know anyone could do it. Let me know if you have any specific questions :)

Side note… one of my best friends from college got engaged this weekend. Congrats Jane! So excited for you!

Best Day of My Life

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Almost exactly a year ago my brothers and I threw my parents a surprise 25th wedding anniversary party (with the amazing help of many family members). I had been mentally planning this day since before I could remember. My parents are honestly two of the most incredible people I will ever know. I know that everyone is biased in thinking their parents are the greatest… but as just humans in general, they surpass most. I was thrilled to be able to give them a party so that they would have a day to be appreciated.

Since it has been almost a year, I wanted to share some of the pictures with you guys and also some of the party details! The party colors were purple and gray. I wanted to use their wedding colors, but unfortunately their 80′s shades of yellow and peach were just awful. Instead I settled on purple (my mothers favorite color) and gray (or silver since that is the color of 25th anniversaries!).

Here are some of the party details… enjoy :)

For the utensils… I decided to make a napkin ring. I used custom printables from The TomKat Studio. Once I punched the circle out, I used a straight-edged razor and cut two slits in the top and strung some ribbon through. Really easy and it looks great! Oh and PS… my parents are Tim and Mary…hence the T&M

I also used the same TomKat Studio printables on my Pastry Pedestal. I mentioned how much I love the Pastry Pedestal here and here.  I just cut some coordinating paper to size and then additionally added one of my custom TomKat circles. These held the cupcakes!

While we are talking about cupcakes… I got some really fun treats to add to the cupcakes I made for the party. I ordered some custom fondant cupcake toppers and some edible pearls from Two Sweet Cakes on Etsy. I was thrilled with how they came out.

Everything together for the cupcakes came out perfectly…

I also got some gray striped straws for the party which I just loved. I bought them from IsaKay Boutique on Etsy. They even made me some personalized flags to adhere to the straws. They were a great personalized touch!

I also had some custom water bottle labels made from Seaside Paper Company. Unfortunately the shop is now closed on Etsy so I don’t have a link for you. They were actually one of my most favorite details from the party.

I don’t remember why.. but I bought some paper parasols last year for the party from Luna Bazaar. I didn’t quite know what I wanted to do with them but then I ultimately decided to hand-paint some words on them with metallic paint pens. They came out amazing… I loved them.

For the centerpieces I did a few different things. Each table had some purple orchids I ordered online from Sam’s Club. They were really beautiful. Then I made a cupcake liner flower pom. I ordered purple cupcake liners from Country Kitchen SweetArt and found the tutorial from Kara’s Party Ideas. They actually came out so cute that one of them is in the guest bathroom on display as we speak you read.

There are a million other things I didn’t mention like the paper lanterns I bought from Oriental Trading etc etc, but you get the idea! Overall it was an incredible day filled with love, laughs and dancing. Yes.. we even had a DJ and a dance floor. Best choice I made!

Here is the fam…

And a great picture of Brett and I…

And the last picture of course had to be a picture of the family in front of the big 25. I scanned tons of pictures into my computer of various moments throughout their marriage… pictures of their wedding, proud parental moments such as the first day of school, family vacations etc etc… and edited them to be black and white and then made a huge 25 backdrop. It was really fun for everyone to take a look back at some of my parents favorite moments.

And because I’m sappy…

And well there you have it! Hope you have all had a day like this in your lives :)

Not such a gardener…

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… so it’s good I can craft my way out of the debacle.

I have terrible luck when it comes to plants. I have tried to be trendy and buy succulents “that can’t die” and yet have killed them. I have bought pretty flowers for my front door only to find that our neighborhood turkey family decided it would be a good snack. I could go on and on about my lack of a green thumb…

I am good however at buying cut flowers and being in love with them until they too, die. Last month, I put together my brother Greg’s graduation party and I was doing all sorts of research for what types of flowers I should buy. Ultimately I decided that my 18 year old brother did not want a party full of daisies and sunflowers. I needed a manly flower.

Then it dawned on me… I could use billy balls. They are yellow which fell into the color scheme and are pretty neutral in terms of looking overly girly. I looked into buying them fresh and dried and both options were more expensive than I was looking for. Then I cam across this tutorial. I could make my own look-a-likes out of roving wool. I was pumped…. I will try anything to see if it works!

What you need:

- Roving Wool (I bought mine online at Joann’s . They have so many colors and it was wool from a place in Michigan so I liked the idea of buying from a little place. I got two bags at $2.99 each)

- A bowl of really hot water (I used a simmering pot to ensure it stayed hot)

- A bowl of ice water

- Floral wire (I don’t know what gauge I used… yikes sorry!)

- Dish Soap

Here is what I did… it is a really strange process but it somehow works:

The entire process consists of felting the wool into a little fake billy ball (aka flowers I can’t kill in the future – yay!) First tear off a piece of the wool.

Then add a little drop of dish soap into your dry hand and rub a bit into the roving wool. Don’t ask me why you do this… I don’t understand the science, but it works.

Then mold the wool into a ball-ish shape before you get ready to dip it into the water. Like I said, I just kept a pot simmering on the stove with a bowl of ice water next to it. Just dip the ball into the water just to get it wet – not soaked.

Once you dip it in the hot water… very, very lightly roll the wool in your hands. If you handle the ball roughly it will start to shrink. It will start to get a bit soapy. Once it is in a ball, then dunk it into the ice water and then keep rolling the ball. Repeat the process of hot to cold a few times. The rapid temperature change is what actually “felts” the ball. You will start to feel the ball become more dense and will shrink a bit. You will be able to tell when it is done!

Once you start going you will find that some require more wool depending upon how hard you roll the balls. Mine are not all perfect in size but they worked for me!

Let the balls dry for 24-48 hours. Unless you are me and are super eager to finish them… I think I waited about 24 hours and then squeezed them to drain out the rest of the water and decided they were good to go. Who knows, maybe I ruined the process but I was tired of waiting for them to dry :)

Once they are dry, you can stick some floral wire into it to create the flower. If you are having a difficult time getting the billy ball to stay on the wire you can always put a dab of hot glue on there to secure it!

Okay… I will be honest with everyone. I did originally make these as a decoration for Greg’s grad party but I had a special place in mind for these in my place when the party was over :) Double duty!

Yay! Flowers I can’t kill by mistake! Overall it was a really easy and fun process. Each ball only took a few minutes and it was something I had never tried before. Let me know if you have any specific questions about the process!

Oh and total side note that has nothing to do with felted billy balls… Yesterday Brett and I went to my company’s 80th anniversary celebration and had a really great time. We even got to go up in a hot air balloon! Okay, okay… it was tethered to the ground and hardly went high at all but when else would I ever be in a hot air balloon??

Such a beautiful site, isn’t it? I just love the look of hot air balloons… they seem magical to me. Oh and check this out…

So hilarious. I love how Brett is giving a thumbs up which is something he would never do in public but I do in just about every picture I take…

Truthfully.. it’s actually embarrassing how many pictures I have of me making weird faces and giving a thumbs up. I think I am just awkward and don’t know what to do with my hands… oye..

But back to the main reason for this post… try to make some felted billy balls of your own!

Sew Sweet

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Well as I mentioned in this post here, I received a new sewing machine recently for my birthday. I made a joke in that post that soon I would be fixing myself up with some clothing.. and well that joke is a reality now. I was nervous to take on this plan… here is why…

Last weekend when I had visited my parents, I went out in the garage to find a cooler. During my search I stumbled upon a bag of clothes that were being donated. The bag was open and something sparkly caught my attention… it was a skirt. A skirt I had fashioned up probably in middle school and it must have recently been found stuffed in the back of a closet. Upon looking at the mess I probably wore out in public unfortunately, I realized that maybe clothing was not my forte. This skirt was a jean skirt made from an old pair of jeans that I cut the legs off of and hot glued sequins and rhinestones to. Literally horrible. Actually it makes sense that I would construct something this tacky. Other than things like that, I mostly ever just made costumes. I either made costumes for dance competitions or I made costumes for school projects. I must have gotten it from my mother who used to make my dance costumes growing up…

But back to the point… I was a little hesitant to try actual clothing as my background in costumes didn’t seem promising to help… However, I gave it a go!

First I found a fabric I liked and used a shirt I also liked to make a template. The shirt I used was actually long-sleeved and was slightly different from what I was looking to make so I winged it a bit.

After using a rotary cutter to cut through two layers of fabric I had my shirt cut to size. I made sure to cut about an inch away from the template to account for the seams. I rather have too much and have to cut it off then find I made the shirt too small.

Then I cut my neckline (just a simple typical neckline) and got to sewing. First I sewed the neckline, arm holes and bottom edge on both pieces. Each of these were sewn a 1/4th of an inch in. Then I just had to sew the two sides together.

I put the two sides together “inside-out” and pinned up the sides and the shoulders. Then sewed them together! After the shirt was all done I actually undid the sides a bit so that the shirt would open in a “V” on the sides and stitched up the raw edges. I was so thrilled with how it came out!

So there you go! A perfect little shirt for summer :) Let me know if you need any specific details on what I did!

I hope this inspires you to break out the sewing machine and attempt a project you didn’t think you could do! You can do it!

Happy Sewing!