A couple weeks ago we went to the Oregon coast with my parents and siblings for my dad's 50th birthday :) We stayed at this little town called Yachats (Yaw-hawts) that my parent's always like to stay in, just a little bit south of Newport, Oregon. I intended to share some pictures from the trip last week, but those post-vacation-blues got to me (and things got busy) and I wasn't able to get it done.
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This last weekend was a very productive one, in terms of hand lettering practice anyway.

I was feeling a little burnt or something with all of my shop stuff (Christmas cards!!) so I decided to shift focus and work on some personal projects instead!

My grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday (!) but they didn't want a party.We did a family reunion last summer to celebrate, but my mom thought it would be nice to send out an announcement to those family and a few friends who didn't make it.

I was pretty excited to do it, and I'm glad that I did! I ended up smoothing out some wrinkles I was having with printing and quality, and I was super happy with the result!




Since it's the gold anniversary, I gold embossed the 50 on all of the announcements, and I thought it turned out super cute!

I do have a confession to make though. The dates? Those aren't my handwriting! I got most of the way through the editing process before realizing that I hadn't done those yet.....so in the interest of saving time, I used a hand written font instead. Kind of cheating, but it is still hand lettered, just not by me. (Don't worry though, it was licensed for personal use!)

The calligraphy, the 50, and the laurel leaves are all mine though. The front had what you see here, as well as a picture of my grandparents from last summer. Then the back was a black and white photo of them on their wedding day! I won't be showing those though, because they don't really want their photos all over the internet.

Then, I drew up a quick invitation for my little sister's birthday party! She put me in charge of planning (and oh man am I having fun with that!) and so I decided to do something fun and informal for her to pass out to friends.





I have always liked the look of this kind of lettering, where everything is filling a set space, and all of the word shapes play off of each other. I never tried it before, because it seemed too daunting, but I'm glad I gave it a shot! I really liked the result, and so did she! I only kept one for myself, but I actually printed it in three different colors, fitting in the party's theme.

I may go ahead and share her party here down the road, if it turns out as good as I'm picturing! And maybe even if it doesn't.

Now that I had a solid weekend, and I'm feeling a little refreshed from some new projects, it's back to those Christmas cards! I'm really feeling the time ticking for those, so I should have some things listed for sale in the next couple days.

Happy Monday everyone, here's to a great start to our work week! Thanks for stopping by!

Every morning, one of the first things I do is literally grind my coffee! It makes such an amazing cup of coffee, that it's totally worth the extra cost.

But even more than I love whole bean coffee, I love using my Chemex. (Even though, really, they go hand in hand.)






I got it for Christmas last year, and it's probably one of my favorite gifts ever. In case you're wondering, a Chemex is a manual coffee maker. Meaning, it takes a little more work than just using an electric one.

Being the lazy person that I am, I kind of figured that I would stop using it regularly once the novelty of it wore off, but I haven't! Our electric coffee maker would never get used if Dane didn't use it, and I would be fine with just getting rid of it.

Every morning I measure out and boil my water, measure out my beans and grind them, and stand there and make my coffee. Something about it must be cathartic to me, because it never gets old!



If you want to see an example of what using a Chemex is like, check out this brew guide by my friend Molly and her husband of Terminus Coffee Co.

Top o' the Monday morning to ya!

It is slow going around here this morning. I'm on cup of coffee number two, and have done absolutely nothing productive whatsoever. But that's just how I roll. I like to ease into my Mondays nice and slow!

So, my Pinterest feed has been on fall mode for the better part of the last month, and you would think that since it's finally September, fall would finally be on it's way in! We started getting a taste of cooler weather, and I thought that in just a short amount of time we would be in full fledged autumn.

Wrong!

Tomorrow is supposed to be almost 100 degrees! Blegh....

I suppose it comes down to just being happy and content, no matter what the season (or how long it may drag out), but my boots and scarves are begging to be worn and my fireplace mantel is screaming for some fall decor!

I guess it's good news for those of you who love summer though, and I know several people who aren't quite ready to let go of this warm season just yet. I'll have to keep my shorts out for a while longer I suppose, and just try to have a little more patience...

On another note, I have a new little furry friend to introduce to you! (For those of you who are friends with me on fb, you already know, so sorry for the repeat!)

We adopted a sweet little corgi/terrier mix (I'm guessing), named Emily last week :)


She is just the absolute sweetest little dog ever! She has been uprooted a couple times recently, both from great homes that she loved because her owner moved and couldn't take her. Most recently it was my younger brother-in-law, so that's how she ended up with us.


It was originally going to to be a foster type situation, just until we could find her a good home, but we love having her around! She's older, and chubby, and did I mention sweet? To eat, sleep, and get her belly scratched is all she wants in life, and I'm more than willing to do that. Plus, it's nice not to be so outnumbered anymore, since all our other pets are boys!



She also makes a great little friend for Handsome, which I've wanted for a while now. And she is just the type of dog that Dane loves. A mellow one!

So, Emily makes four, and I think we'd better stop adding to our circus now, or things might start to get out of control ;)



Well, on that cute note, I think it's time I finish my coffee and take these puppies of mine on a walk! Have a great Monday everybody!

Spring is here in full force these days, and if it were just a few degrees warmer I would say summer was on its way in! We had a wet spell for a while that really "greened" everything up, and now the sun is out so we can enjoy it!

I have a bit of a break this week from work, which is much more appreciated when I've been working a lot. I have quite a bit planned to get done this week, but it feels much more relaxed because I can do it all at my own pace.

This afternoon I decided to go to the park and get some use out of my camera (like I've said I was going to for weeks now). It was the perfect day for it, even if I could have waited until later when the light would have been better. I was able to get several shots that I was really happy with, and it is so apparent that we are in that sweet spot of spring.

Also, after I took these, I remembered that today is Earth Day, so it seemed only fitting that I share them with you all! I hope you enjoy them, and I hope you all get a chance to enjoy nature today, whatever the weather may be where you are.

I'm Molly Mae, the voice over at MaeLiveFree, and I'm pretty excited to offer up some grade-A embarrassing story over here today! Lucky for me, and you, it's a love story too. This guest appearance came about in competition (which is actually pretty typical of me and Amy, as are embarrassing stories really). When I recommended choice literature for her to read, and then noticed that she was as unmotivated to read it as I was I said, "Hey, let's say whoever finishes first does a post for the other?" She agreed.

Amy and I go a long way back! We met on my second day of school in Marsing, that little town in Idaho she loves, when we were ten year olds. She was my first best friend in that new school. Then my nemesis, and back and forth it went all the way to graduation. We were pretty similar, both oldest siblings, both loved reading and singing cheesy pop music, both highly opinionated, both royal pains I'm sure as well... We could have been a great pair of friends if we didn't insist on butting heads, and when we were, we were. For some reason though, we couldn't resist a little competition. During the times we got along we had a lot of fun, like at our 8th grade basketball season end party (it's still weird that I ever played basketball) when we were in this weird and apparently hilarious competition of offensive and non-sensical words with Cera and Danielle at a Chinese restaurant. We've also witnessed some embarrassing moments of each other's.  Like me tripping up the stairs at the basketball game we went to at the same party, and tearing my shin up. Or when Amy forgot the words to her solo at one of our Christmas concerts... In the spirit of our history, and her penchants for sharing embarrassing stories here that's what I want to share with you (her awesome readers) today.

On June 7, 2009, I met this random stranger of a guy on facebook (Myspace was losing steam). He sent me a friend request and I accepted just so I could look at his private profile and write him off as a creep...and instead my curiosity was piqued. I thought there was a really good chance that I could love him. Crazy, I know. Especially considering I had just broken off my engagement with my high school sweetheart. Even more so because I had decided that I was really thrilled at the prospect of self-exploration. I told my mom maybe the DAY BEFORE that I would never date someone I met on the internet...then he showed up. It was the worst timing for romance too! My dad had just moved out, and my great grandma was in bad shape with dementia in a nursing home. But for some reason I felt so compelled to know this guy, so I called him out, and messaged him saying that we could be friends as long as he actually wanted to socialize. He thought my initiative was charming and eloquent, so we started talking, via message and text, and I knew I was in trouble! We texted almost non-stop for two days, he stayed up late to talk to me while I stayed up for 64 hours straight in the nursing home leading up to my grandma's passing. Then we decided to meet. He drove 26 miles to pick me up for our first date (I didn't have a car or license at 19!) and when I let him in the door my heart hit the roof. I KNEW that he was my life from that moment on, it was like I'd been hit by a speeding train, and that he had a specific gravitational pull that affected only me. It was the craziest. When we got in his truck he said I smelled delicious and I giggled because my perfume was DKNY Be Delicious.


Fast forward through half a day spent at his apartment just talking like old friends and watching a movie...I meet his roomate, and then his best friend and his girlfriend. The two latter, this fella, and myself decide to go out to his favorite sushi restaurant for dinner. I'm equal parts excited and mortified. I had always wanted to try sushi, but I wasn't the biggest fan of seafood. So off we went in his truck, onto the freeway, when he realized he forgot his wallet. His best friend laughed and remarked on how common that was, and we exited to go back and get it. We arrive at the sushi restaurant and the gentlemen proceed to do the ordering, they know what's good, I trust them. The sushi arrives and we share 4 rolls. Thing to note: I've never REALLY used chopsticks before, so they give me a lesson. I managed to grab a piece of the Spicy Hawaiian roll and bring it to my mouth. Everyone is talking and carrying on, and I'm trying to figure out how to eat it without looking gross or stupid because it's huge! I decide to bite off half of it and the whole thing starts crumbling like a old house being demolished. My mouth is full, and I'm helpless, and suddenly all eyes are on me... I quickly bring my free hand up to cover my mouth and attempt to chew and push the rest into my mouth while they are looking at me: one smugly, one laughing, and one acting like nothing is happening. The latter being my date thank God, he doesn't seem like I've embarrassed him. The good news is that it was delicious, and also that it wasn't the last date like I feared.

We were pretty much inseparable after that first date, I practically lived at his apartment at least half of the week until I did move in, in October. Somewhere in that still-dating-and-not-yet-one-hundred-percent-comfortable stage we were out at KFC eating lunch, those bowls with mashed potatoes, corn, chicken, cheese, and gravy AKA failure piles in a sadness bowl (forgive the strong language, but watch it, do it). We were sitting in a booth, facing each other, and talking about something that I was apparently excited about and I had set my plastic spork down in the bowl to talk with my hands. Are you starting to see the danger here? No, read on...at some point my hand started to come down, hovering somewhere above the spork for a split second (imagine this scene in slow motion, it's best) before coming down and scattering flinging the heck out of mashed potatoes all over me, my face, the table, and probably across the restaurant, but none on my laughing boyfriend. Some guys might have up and run out on a girl then, or grabbed me and got me out of there fast, but he didn't. If I hadn't already known he was the one, I would have learned it then.

As if those two ugly faced, slobby food scenarios weren't bad enough, things like this happen with me all the time...dipping my hair in farina, slopping coffee all over my face and chest, dropping a glob of ketchup on my swaddled nursing newborn, etc. Even today! After spending 10 minutes hand grinding coffee beans for my aeropress coffee, I set out to remove the bottom canister of the hand grinder and dropped the grounds all over the floor. This time my now husband was covered in my shame as well, standing a little too close when it happened.

I'm lucky to have such a soul to witness my awkward encounters though, and reminded of this everyday. He wrote in his wedding vows that it wasn't despite things like me flinging mashed potatoes in my face that he loved me, but because of them. If that's not a victory for the grace challenged like myself, then I don't know what is.


Thanks for having me here! Maybe I'll see you around my corner of the internet sometime. ;)

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