this pretty baby...

is coming to the McElderry house!


After John and I got married, we had big plans to use some of our wedding gift money to buy a Kitchen-Aid Mixer. Alas, after rent down payments, buying a bed, comforter set and a few other necessities for our home there was just not enough to buy our dream mixer.

This is where the great performance award program at my company comes in. I got a few performance awards this week- and voila! Enough for this pretty baby (we are getting the 6 quart one too!)

Just thought I should share my exciting news. I still have $130 dollars left to spend. What would you get?

Texas Bridal Shower

My mom and sisters threw me a really awesome bridal shower back home. I just stumbled upon these pictures again today. We really had an incredible time.

just in case you need a laugh

I recently upgraded my work laptop to Windows 7. Included in this update are a bunchy nifty backgrounds like this:



Backgrounds that really make your clients take you seriously. As in my boss saw one of these backgrounds and asked me how old was. Yeah, I am a real winner.

Some of these are way cool though; however,you might want to keep the "rotate background" setting to your personal computer only.

Tour De Food (and Ann Arbor)

Both of John's sisters, and his sister Liz's family (Brother in law + 3 kiddos) came to visit us for our summer vacation. It was awesome! We spent the first few days in Ann Arbor, and then we headed up to Sleeping Bear Dunes for a few days of beach time.

All of our family are notorious foodies, so we spent one of the days visiting Zingerman's. If you visit Ann Arbor, Zingerman's really is a must. Their tour de food gets you a free tshirt and a lot of yummy samples if you visit all of their locations.



Here are Jason (Spectacular Brother in Law) & John (you know, my one and only) enjoying a sample of balsamic vinegar. Did I mention this balsamic vinegar had been aged for 50 years and was $250 for a little bottle? It is super yummy, usually used for desserts and such (I once tried it on gelato-delish!)



Here is the whole family at the creamery . This was too much fun and the kiddos even enjoyed it. Other fun Ann Arbor adventures included a walk of campus, eating at Kosmos, the Farmers Market and visiting the wave field. These are definitely a few of my favorite places.

the john will kill me post.

John had his wisdom teeth taken out the day after we got home from vacation. And yikes... this minor surgery was not so good to John.


I just had to share this pic... even as a drugged chipmunk he is cute. I mean, just look at those freckles!!

my college experience, as told by tshirts

I am working on a tshirt quilt of all of the tshirts I collected during my time at the University of Micigan.



I was in a sorority, in a bunch of student orgs, and worked 3 jobs. Needless to say, I had a LOT of tshirts. But a lot of great stories can be told from these tshirts, and they represent a lot of great memories.



I am hoping to post on some of the more memorable(and entertaining) of these experiences, maybe I will finally finish my 40 things I learned in college posts? And hopefully I will get this quilt finished soon too, unlike the first quilt I made (which is still not backed or bound!).

Let me know if you want details on making your own tshirt quilt. This was a fun and reflective craft project :)

Apartment Revamp: Complete!

**I am going through my old posts that were drafts and that I never published. This one is from August!! Hope you enjoy anyway :)**

I mentioned earlier I was working on an apartment revamp, and also a few organization projects. For the most part, this has been finished in my main room/kitchen.

Here are the super quick curtains I whipped together one evening. To make I reviewed the previous curtains I had (

Crafting is in my blood...

I think creativity and the desire to create is a part of my heritage. I have many incredibly talented family members, but I know without a doubt that my love for crafting came from my mother.


My mother has "been there and perfected that" in pretty much all crafting medium. I am constantly impressed that my mom can just decide to try something and so naturally become so skilled. She made the bridesmaid dresses for her wedding while she was still in college. She learned how to make intricately decorated birthday cakes to make her children's birthdays special. She made many halloween costumes growing up.

She gave hand made cards and gifts most years at Christmas. For my 8th "American Girl Doll" birthday party, she made every one of my friends an American Girl Doll Sleeping Bag. She single handedly scrapbooked my entire existence before high school. She sold homecoming mums to friends and neighbors. She made all of the floral arrangements for my wedding, and did pretty much everything else.


Now she does maternity, baby and wedding photography for friends, family and colleagues. To sum it up, she is incredible.


My mom was the one who taught me to craft. She helped me pick out paper for my first scrapbook in 8th grade and taught me some of her favorite techniques. When I was 16 she talked the owner of new scrapbook store into hiring me. She bought me my first sewing machine. And she stayed up with me nights before I started college to help me create some cute things to decorate my room.

I am so grateful for my mother, and for the joy she brings to my life. I am also so grateful she shared her crafty passion with me, it brings me great joy and in many ways defines a big part of me :)

fun calendar for my kitchen :)

Recently I made a pretty cute calendar for my kitchen.

I started with a baking sheet (mine was one I had used from Ikea). I painted the outside of it red with a few coats of paint, and then sealed it with modge podge (ie miracle glue) so the paint wouldn't scratch right off.



Then I used a 3/4" paper punch to cut out small circles, and I stamped numbers 1-31 on a circle.



I used glue dots (small adhesive dots, you can find them at any craft store) to adhere the circles to some 3/4 magnets (found at Hobby Lobby, very very very magnetic).

With the magnetic dates for the calendar, I will beable to put dentist reminder cards, or any other kind of note under each day. They also make it easy to remove or add items, which I really like.



Next I did a zig zag stitch on the ends of some supercute fabric (cut into a 12 by 12" piece) I found at a little fabric shop in Columbus, OH. Then I used tacky tape (another essential scrapbook item, it literally will stick to anything, found at most craft stores), to adhere the fabric to the cookie sheet.



Then I used my friend's Silhouette SD (I dream of owning one), to cut out the letters for each month. You could just handwrite it or use stickers if a diecute machine is not handy. These I affixed to white pieces of cardstock (I attached this with a sticky dot, will attach a new one each month. I am thinking about using velcro instead...)



Then I put the dates on the board, and uses white cardstock scraps to write some of the stuff we have going on this month (weddings, vacation, wisdom teeth-- oh my!)

And Voila! A pretty calendar that sure brightens up my kitchen.



Here it is hanging in my kitchen :)



Enjoy!

Pop it, lock it...

Yep, I definitely spent New Years Eve (appox 40 hours from my wedding) learning the hoedown throwdown by Miley Cyrus. I was inspired by one of John's roomates and a bunch of girls at church who learned it for our Christmas Soiree. And, my little niece knew it, why not?





Needless to say, it was a lot of fun and as close to a choreographed wedding dance as John would let me go :)

sweet new google reader feature...

I <3 google reader and follow many a crafty/family/friend blog using it. But, sometimes the rss feed doesnt include images... so I find myself clicking to the links or just wanting to view the sites from their pages. (some of the websites are sooo pretty and you just dont get to take it in with google reader...)

Anyway! Google has come up with a better way. An add on for your internet browser to take you through unread items on your google reader. YAY!

read more and learn to install here

I am loving it so far.

Twilight Fever

When Eclipse premiered John and I quickly made plans to see it (sadly not opening night, seeing as how I am a grownup now and all...).

Then I get this IM at work on the day we were planning to see it:



Wow. I think this is a case of Twilight Fever.



"American teens are coming down with a serious case of Twilight fever, transforming normal children to vampires obsessed with the occult!"
--Principal Figgins from Glee