Diana+

A photo from my first experimental roll with the Diana+ camera I received for Christmas. Dreamy...

Meet me over at sfgirlbybay

I'm very excited to say I'm an Unexpected Guest over at sfgirlbybay today!

This is one of my favorite segments of Victoria's blog and I was so honored she asked me. She usually features fancy artists who actually have you know, work to show so I wasn't quite sure what she would do with me. But thanks to Flickr she found enough interestingness and I just love the diptics she put together. A photo can become so much more when placed next to another.

Read the whole interview on her blog here

Thanks Victoria! I have a mojito chilling and a lounge chair with your name on it any time : )

Obsession: Chambray

I did a little guilt-free shopping last night with my birthday cash (thanks forest!) and found myself gravitating toward all things chambray. It's so classic.

Does anyone know where you can buy it? I would love to make a clutch or bag out of it. If any of you have a source I'd love to know.

Vote for Emily and Brian!

Well, hullo. I have not blogged in a week - whats up with that? Babies, that's what's up. We are visiting my parents for the weekend and I brought my flash card which is full of good stuff intended for this blog. So if I find some time tomorrow I am going to try and catch up. Catch up - that's my mantra right now.

But real quick I wanted to post about an email I just received from one of my 2007 brides, Emily. She and Brian entered a handful of their photos in theknot.com's Real Weddings Contest and we need your votes! I had such a blast with them on their wedding day, am SO happy they liked their photos enough to enter them in a contest, and would love to see them win.

If you have a second follow this link and give their photos a big fat 5 hearts. If you don't have a knot log-in you have to create one, but it literally takes 30 seconds (I did it too). So will you vote? Pretty pretty please?

View my Real Wedding Awards Nominee!

Their website is also in the contest. They were #1 yesterday!

View my Real Wedding Awards Nominee!

Good luck you two! If you ask me you definitely had one of the best weddings of 2007 : ) xo

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365: A Baby's First Year :: 037

polyvore.com: GO

Well, it's a good thing it's 4:10pm because if you are someone with a 9-5 you only have 50 minutes left in your day to waste on this site. If it were 10am I think you'd be in trouble.

My lil' sis Corrie introduced polyvore.com to me about 45 minutes ago and it is AMAZING. I may be late in the game on this one, I don't know, but it's like the flickr of fashion. You can look at thousands of items from online stores, even import anything you want and make up outfits and collages to your heart's content.

We are collage making girls (my sister has binders full) and this is like having all our fashion magazines at our finger tips without the scissors and glue! Next time I'm stumped for what to wear you know I will be heading here. The coolest thing is that you can make up an outfit, then buy the whole thing right afterward! My clothing budget never saw this coming. polyvore.com - go!

Fashion District:LA

We had so much fun taking photos. These are a joint effort between my mom and I.
Click here to see more on flickr.

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Slipcover

My mom was in town for a few a days (yay) while my dad and Forest fly-fished in Mammoth. Mom visits are always fun, especially this one because it involved a lot of fabric and sewing talk.

While she was here she made a slipcover pattern for the yellow chairs:

As much as I love my yellow chairs, they really need to be recovered. Maisy attacked one about a week after we got them (thanks, Dog) so one half is permanently covered by a blanket and the other is starting to rip now too because the fabric is old and worn thin. I thought about having them reupholstered in leather or another fabric, but leather is out right now due to budget concerns and with our lifestyle slipcovers really are the best option.

I have said this before, but do you know how awesome it is to have a mom who sews professionally? It's awesome. I am determined to learn slipcovers myself so I don't have to bother her, but I'm starting small with some pillows for our couch.

Part of our weekend involved a trip to LA's fashion district. I have been wanting to take my mom there for awhile so we packed up the baby and went for it. Little B did great in the Moby Wrap for 2+ hours (I CAN have a life and a baby!) and we were successful in our fabric search despite only covering um, 1 of the 90 blocks that is the fashion district. I think we had more fun taking pictures and I'll show you my favorites scenes from Maple Avenue in an upcoming post.

So now, pillows with zippers. My mom says they aren't as scary as I might think. We'll see.

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365: A Baby's First Year :: 030

365: A baby's first year :: 024

Almost caught up! I just posted updates to my 365 project and am just about up to date. I backposted a bunch of photos today, so click here if you want to see the whole project so far.

I Have a New Crush

And it's not on a celebrity or even a human being...it's this mini cupcake from Crushcakes, a brand new cupcakery in Santa Barbara.

Our dear friends Lindsay & Katie brought us dinner last night and included a box of these sweet little desserts. Some of you may know that I wasn't eating sugar during my pregnancy because I had gestational diabetes, so now that I'm done with that people have been spoiling me with treats. Yum yum yum - no complaints here. The two I tried were scrumptious and I will most likely devour this one after lunch today.

You Make My Day

Awhile back, the lovely girls of perfectbound named me one of their five blogs that "make their day". They are one of my must-reads and I always enjoy the little vignettes they put together and photograph for their posts. I think this was right around when I had the baby and I have to say it made MY day to know that I made theirs : )

I am following their prompt and wanted to share five blogs that daily make my day. I have - Oh, about 70 or so blogs in my Google Reader feed so these five are just a few of the many that I look forward to daily.

1. shimandsons
I love Sally's minimalism. Her images always make me feel peaceful- a wonderful place to declutter. And I wish I could wear dresses like she does! Don't have the body type, but every time she posts a photo of a new dress she looks so classy. And her little boys - inspiring me to let B's hair grow a little long and give him lots of hats. Plus she uses gray often in her products and home - my favorite color...or non-color.

2. faithsalutes
the now-on-hiatus blog of my bff is always an entertaining read. You would think that since we talk every day I wouldn't need to read her stories, but I have learned so much from her posts about her childhood, etc...and if they don't make me laugh they make me feel something. Read through the archives sometime and leave a comment! Maybe she will come back to us...

3. Making It LovelyHome projects galore! Nicole is so inspiring - she posts updates on their home and has created such a beautiful place to live.

4. sugar city journal
Two sister-in-laws who tag team this blog and make the most beautiful BEAUTIFUL clothes for their daughters. See this coat. I remember the outfits my mom made for me and I don't there is much else that is so special to a little girl.

5. pinkshirtsandcarwrecks
Libby is an artist and showcases her work as well as work by other designers. Always something good over there. Most recently she posted about some wonderful chair prints by artist Maria Jonosko.

Blog reading has never been so vital to my day as it is now. While I'm feeding the boy for hours a day and can't do much decorating, photographing or designing in my own life I can live vicariously through others and bookmark inspiration for future projects. Thanks to all you bloggers who make my day : )